Adventures of Susan the Finn DISCONTINUED
by Jiwa
Summary: Normalcy isn't thing after you've entered the world of Doctor Who. Life goes all wibbly wobbly timey wimey for Susan when she finds herself in Cardiff and meets the Torchwood team. But will she ever meet the Doctor? NEW VERSION IS BEING RE-WRITTEN.
1. Prologue

I never thought it would come to this.

I mean, for my whole life and childhood everything was boring and normal. Nothing extraordinary ever happened. The usual high lights of my life were getting good grades on my school reports and watching Doctor Who.

Oh, I dreamed about Doctor Who. Like so many others. I dreamed that one day, I would come across a blue police box and that this _amazing_ man would come and take me to all these extraordinary adventures around the universe, and my life would never be the same.

Even though I always had a very vivid imagination, I never actually believed that something like that could happen to me. I was always that pessimistic at heart. If someone met the Doctor and found out that he and his amazing world of aliens and time travel was actually real, it wouldn't be me. It would never happen to me. Maybe to someone else. But not to me. Not to the boring Susan Friberg.

But guess what?

I was wrong.


	2. Bright light equels a dead fan?

**A/N: Hello!**

As some of you might notice, this is a re-write of my almost one year old fanfiction called "Wrong place at the wrong time? Definitely not". Yesterday, after watching the finale episode of the sixth season of Doctor Who, I got so much inspiration and many plot bunnies concerning this story, that I decided to start writing the whole thing again from the start. Some (even major) things will be changed, mostly because now I actually have a good plotline that I can follow.

This will be a very long fanfiction, covering most of the Doctor Who seasons, beginning from the middle of season three. And there will also be Torchwood.

**Warnings: **This will be somewhat AU. Also, spoilers for Doctor Who seasons 1-6.

**Disclaimer:** Doctor Who and Torchwood belong to BBC. I only own the characters you don't recognize.

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><p><strong>BOOK ONE<strong>

"_By the pricking of my thumbs,_  
><em>Something wicked this way comes.<em> "  
>- William Shakespeae<p>

**Chapter 1: Bright light equels a dead fan?**

Susan Friberg opened her eyes and glanced around. Everything had gone awfully quiet. She could swear that just a moment ago she had been walking with her group around Cardiff in the middle of the day, and just as she had stopped to take a picture of this nice looking alley, she was surrounded by white light and suddenly it seemed like more than a few hours had passed.

The alley looked almost exactly same as before the light, but it looked like day had turned into evening and the weather had turned colder than Susan had been prepared for. Surely, not even in the UK the weather was this cold during the summer.

Confused, and more than a little curious about what had happened, she studied her surroundings. Yep, it definitely was the same street. She looked down at her camera and noticed that in the picture she had taken just minutes before, the buildings looked somewhat older and more shabby. Susan raised her eyebrows at that.

"Things just changed from kind of strange to very strange," Susan muttered out loud, sighed and put her camera back in her shoulder bag.

She heard voices of the traffic somewhere further away, since the alley she was standing on was connected to one of the more quiet streets of Cardiff. She started walking towards the sounds.

The more pessimistic part of her brain told her that the strange light had probably been headlights of some kind of vehicle and she was now dead or in coma, dreaming about this place. Or maybe she was already dead, and had waken up as a ghost.

Susan quickly looked down at her hands and counted her finger. They looked solid enough.

'_This is getting ridiculous,_' the voice in her head remarked.

Susan rolled here yes. "What?" she asked, out loud. "It's one of the only possible explanations for why I'm suddenly in the same street but later on the same day."

_'Yeah right_,' her inner voice snorted. '_Like you didn't already figure out that it's definitely not the same day.'_

The remark made the air around her feel colder than a moment ago and she shivered. Susan knew that her inner voice was speaking the truth, because she had started thinking the same thing immediately after comparing the picture she had taken to the alley as it was now.

Maybe she really had died, and had woken up as a spirit, many years later. Or maybe she had been zapped forwards or backwards in time and she was now in the wrong time line or... '_Maybe you've __just watched too many episodes of Doctor Who_,' the voice snickered. Susan scowled.

"Now, how in the world is that a bad thing? Personally I think that it comes very handy in a situation like this," she said, smiling smugly. "I have many possible explanations in my mind, for almost every one of them I can thank Doctor Who or Torchwood," she said.

For a moment they were both silent. Susan kept walking and looked around the quiet street. It looked abandoned, and the lack of good old street lamps wasn't exactly helping to get rid of the spooky atmosphere. "At least I'm not panicking," Susan muttered.

A loud screeching of tires made her turn around. A black SUV was speeding towards her, the bright headlights blinding her vision. Susan raised a hand in front of her eyes to see better. The car stopped on the side of the street just a few meters from her. Squinting, Susan eyed the black car suspiciously, while a man in a long coat stepped out and started walking towards her. He seemed to be looking for something.

Susan couldn't see his face until he was right in front of her, but when she did, her eyes widened and her mouth dropped.

The man noticed her staring at her and looked at her oddly. Then his eyes wandered all over the streets, as if looking for something. Only after a few minutes of standing there did he seem to notice that Susan was still staring at him, and turned around to face her.

Susan stared. And stared. She couldn't believe her eyes, and for a moment she kept opening and closing her mouth, wanting to say something. Then as she finally got her voice back, she gasped out: "Oh, my, god. It's you!"

The man raised his eyebrows, clearly amused by the reaction. "Me?"

"You!" Susan gasped again, "You are-!"

The man smile smugly, as if waiting for something akin to 'gorgeous, handsome' come out of her mouth. "I am...?" he asked.

Susan finally managed to get over her momentarily shock and she squealed loudly. "You're John Barrowman!" she cried out.

The smile on his face faltered and was replaced by a confused expression. "Sorry, what?" he asked but the Susan didn't seem to hear him.

"And you're wearing the coat!" she whispered in awe, eyeing him up and down. Suddenly she started digging her shoulder bag, looking for something. "It's got to be here somewhere..." she muttered to herself. After a while she stopped and exclaimed a happy "Aha!", drawing out a photograph of the man in front of her and a black marker. She turned her eyes back to the confused man, looked at him pleadingly and handed the things over to him.

"Mr. Barrowman," Susan pleaded. "Can I please have your autograph?"

The man in question stared at her oddly for a moment, before closing his eyes and sighing loudly. Gingerly, he took the picture and the marker from her hands, took off the markers head and scribbled his name on the right corner of it. Then he handed it back to her.

Susan squealed loudly and hugged the signed photograph to her chest like it was her most prized possession. Then she turned her watery eyes towards him again.

_John Barrowman_ seemed to awkwardly shift under her admiring gaze, and for a moment they just stared at each other. "Soooo," drawled Susan in what she hoped sounder a very nonchalant tone, "Are you shooting the new series of Torchwood or something?"

The man snapped back to attention. "What do you mean?" he asked quickly, eyes piercing hers with a suspecting glint in them.

Susan smiled awkwardly and pointed her finger at the RAF coat he was currently wearing. "I figured that you must be shooting the new series, 'cause you're wearing Jack's coat."

John Barrowman frowned a little. Then he touched his ear. The movement strangely reminded Susan of the times when Jack in the show had listened to his team through the comms. His gaze drifted over nothing for a moment, until he once again snapped back to attention and looked thoughtfully at Susan.

"You... could say that," he answered slowly.

Susan smiled. "I know you probably shouldn't be telling me this," she said and winked. "But don't worry, I can keep a secret," she whispered. The man just stared at her with an expression that screamed 'yeah, right'.

Susan pouted suddenly. "Well, lots of good a new season will do anyway," she said sadly. "There's no point in Torchwood now that Ianto's gone."

John Barrowman stiffened suddenly and twitched strangely. "Who are you?" he asked, serious eyes staring at her.

"Susan," she said, holding out her hand for the greeting, "Susan Friberg." He took it, and looked at her, now smiling widely that handsome smile that always made Susan's knees feel very weak.

He glanced at the SUV and grinned. "Well, Susan, would you like to go for a ride?"

"Wow," Susan breathed in wonder as they drove through the sleepy city of Cardiff. "This car looks exactly like the SUV in the series does."

Jack stared at the girl beside him and smiled tightly. "Really?" he asked.

"Yep," she said and gazed at him admiringly. Now, Captain Jack Harkness couldn't say that he wasn't flattered that the doe eyed girl that kept gazing at him in wonder, but it was slowly beginning to creep him out just a little bit.

"So, where are we going?"

Jack just stared straight ahead and without looking at her, answered: "To the Hub."

Susan's eyes glinted with awe. "To the Hub? I'm going to see the new set?" she asked. "This is so cool!"

The corner of Jack's mouth twitched. "Yep, the new set..." he muttered. Whatever that was. Touching his earpiece, he whispered quietly as he could: "Tosh, do you hear me?"

"_Yes?_" Toshiko Sato said through the comms. "_What's the matter, Jack?_" She was slowly starting to sound worried.

"Summon the whole team back to the Hub. Right now," he whispered and glanced at the girl beside him. She didn't have seemed to hear, but was staring at the photograph he had signed earlier with a strange expression on her face.

"_All of them?_" Toshiko breathed. "_Owen is not going to like this,_" Jack heard her mutter quietly.

"Just do it," he snapped and glanced at Susan, closing the comms with a faint click.

"Why in the world did you sign '_Jack Harkness_'?" Susan asked, confused. She turned to look at John, who just stared ahead, not answering. "Mr. Barrowman?" she asked timidly. "John?"

Suddenly the car stopped and and the motion threw Susan forward a bit.

"We're here," the actor said and stepped out. Confused, Susan followed him out of the car, carrying her bag on her shoulder, and still hugging the picture to her chest like it was the One Ring and she the Gollum. Looking around, she immediately recognized the place. They were at Roald Dahl Plass. But why? Were they shooting a scene outside there? It didn't seem very likely, as there were no camera crew around, she thought.

Susan glanced questioningly at John. "Follow me," he said curtly and walked towards the spot where the invisible lift was.

"Oh!" Susan exclaimed, instantly recognizing where they were headed and caught up with him, stepping on the pavement just a moment before him.

"This is so neat," she giggled. "I've always wanted to come here and maybe take a few photographs, but the Cardiff city tour I chose for my language course was already planned through and..." she trailed off. John had just stepped on the space beside her and the slab of concrete suddenly started sinking down.

Her mouth opened into a silent shape of the letter O, and she clutched the arm of the man beside her. "I cannot believe..." she started to say in awe as they moved downwards and looked up at John. "That you guys actually build a working lift like this!" she squealed loudly.

Jack just rolled his eyes at the strange remark and stepped off, taking Susan, who was still clutching herself to his arm, with him.

"Tosh, are the others on their way?" he asked the woman who was in front of the huge computer screens, while mowing towards her desk with Susan. Tosh looked up at hearing his voice, and her eyes widened at the sight of the girl beside him. She glanced back at Jack and nodded silently.

Susan rolled her eyes and left go of John. Typical actors, she muttered in her mind. Not even calling their co-workers with their real names.

"Do you really call her Tosh all the time?" she snorted, breaking the heavy silence and earning a confused glance from the woman in question. Susan eyed the actress with a blank expression, and as John didn't seem to want answer to her, she walked towards 'Tosh' and smiled warmly.

"Hey, between you and me... Can I ask you something?" she stage-whispered. Tosh looked a bit uncertain, but as Jack nodded at her in confirmation, she nodded too.

Susan glanced at John Barrowman over her shoulder and then returned her gaze at the timid woman, pursing her lips at the actress. "Why do you need his approval?" she asked raising her left eyebrow. "It's not like he's your boss in real life or anything," she joked and didn't notice that her company didn't seem to find it amusing. Toshiko's confused expression only morphed into a more confused one.

"Anyway," Susan continued, batting her hand to indicate that the subject was changing. "Are you really Japanese?" she asked curiously, smiling widely.

"Yes, of course," Toshiko said, not quite understanding why the girl had asked her such a strange question. Susan smiled and rubbed her hands together in a pleased way, and almost muttered 'excellent' but decided not to creep out her idols too much.

"Well, in that case, let me introduce myself." She drew a deep breath and said: "_Konbanwa. Watashi wa Friberg, Susan desu. Hajimemashite._"

Then she bowed her head deeply, and for drama's sake, stayed in the position for a few seconds. Looking up she saw Toshiko's bemused expression. Grinning, Susan straightened up and sheepishly scratched her neck. "I've always wanted to say that to someone who is actually Japanese," she laughed awkwardly.

"Your Japanese is very good," Toshiko smiled sweetly.

Susan's eyes sparkled. "_Arigato!_" she laughed. "My cousin is studying Japanese in a university right now, so he helps me from time to time. My pronunciation also seems to be automatically better than most people's, because I'm from Finland and the pronunciation is very similar," she continued.

"Oh, really?" Toshiko asked, and threw a glance at Jack who just shrugged. There was a silence for brief moment, until Susan seemed to remember something that had been bugging her for a while now.

"There was something I was going to ask..." she mused, looking around and trying to remember what she was going to say.

Jack laughed loudly as he picked up the file he had abandoned earlier upon Gwen's desk. "Maybe another autograph?" he asked, grinning. Toshiko looked confused.

"Oh, right," Susan said distractedly. "Can I please have your autograph, miss Mori?" she questioned Tosh, and before the poor woman even had a change to answer, she handed her a piece of paper and the same black marker.

"But that wasn't it," she muttered as Toshiko looked at the paper in her hands, not quite knowing what to do. Susan didn't notice Jack mouthing to Toshiko and telling her just to write her name on the paper. Toshiko did as he said.

"Now I remember!" Susan exclaimed loudly, freezing in place as the thought struck her. Her eyes widened. "Where are all the cameras?" she yelled.

Just then the cog wheel door opened, and the alarm noise made the shocked girl turn towards the door. Very angry, and very real Owen Harper walked through the door. "Now, there better be a bloody good reason for this!"

To tell the truth... Well, she fainted.


	3. Meet the team

**Chapter 2: Meet the team**

Susan slowly drifted back to consciousness, many thoughts running through her sleepy head. Now, that was a very strange dream, she thought and rolled over, tucking her arm under her head. She had dreamed of meeting John Barrowman, again, but then he didn't seem to be John Barrowman after all, but the real Jack Harkness.

Susan snorted at the thought. Her dreams were so often just like that, very crazy and impossible for them to even happen in the real life. For instance, in one of her dreams she had somehow got hold of David Tennant's email and added him to her list of contacts in IM. They had chatted like old friends.

Now there's a thought. Did David Tennant even use IM? Somehow Susan doubted it. He was far too old and far too famous to be using such things as instant messenger...

"Excuse me, are you awake miss?" a voice from above her head startled Susan out of her musings and her eyes flew open to see Ianto Jones standing over her.

"Holy cow!" she exclaimed, jumping up. "Ianto Jones!" she squealed, showing no signs of the sleepiness that earlier clouded her tired brain. Ianto stepped backwards, startled, and stood in front of her, probably wondering to himself if she was high or something. Ianto's eyes were looking at her curiously, but his outward appearance was arranged into a polite smile. And he was wearing a suit.

"You're Ianto Jones!" Susan repeated in wonder. Inwardly, she scolded herself for stating the obvious.

Ianto nodded, a bit uncertain of what to say. Not finding a better answer, he just confirmed her statement with a polite: "Yes, I am."

Susan took a moment to look at him from head to toes. He was only a few inches taller than her, but still shorter than Jack. He was such a cutie. "You're absolutely fantastic. Perfect," she said, grinning. "Brilliant!"

Ianto cocked up an polite eyebrow at her praise, but a little hint of red on his cheeks betrayed his careful composure. He was flattered.

"You're so brilliant that I could kiss you!" Susan said, looking at him with wide eyed wonder. A thought struck her and she stopped her gaping. "But that's Jack's job," she grinned and averted her eyes. From the corner of her eyes she saw Ianto blushing even more. He obviously heard her.

"Hmmm, maybe I'll just stick to an autograph and a few photos," she smiled and looked around for her bag, but didn't find it. "Where is my bag?" she yelped and pointed her finger at Ianto. Her eyes narrowed. "Did Jack steal my bag?"

Ianto chuckled. The sound was enough to make Susan freeze. His voice was so damn beautiful, just like the rest of him. So damn cute... She shook her head to stop herself from emerging into full fangirl mode, just in time for Ianto to open his mouth.

"Let me take you to the others," he said. "Jack mentioned that you have lots of explaining to do," he continued and turned around, heading towards the staircase that led to the conference room.

"Oh, right," Susan muttered, following him and trying to focus on what Ianto was saying. She had already forgotten about that little incident concerning herself as she mistaked the team for their actors. "How long was I asleep?"

"It's already ten in the morning, so you were asleep over ten hours," Ianto said, amusement clear in his voice. Susan was a bit surprised to hear that. Had they all stayed in the hub the whole time, joking about the girl who passed out as she saw Owen? Probably not, she thought. She wasn't that important.

Ianto stopped as they reached the stairs and turned around before they could get any further. "Would you like to have some coffee?"

Susan couldn't hold back her squeal of delight. She smiled at him. "I don't usually drink coffee, you know," she said, and smirked as she noticed Ianto's disappointed expression. "But if the coffee is made by Ianto Jones, I wouldn't miss it for anything."

Ianto smile became a little brighter. He nodded and pointed towards the conference room upstairs. "They're all waiting you up there. You go along, I'll get the coffee," he smiled. "Susan, was it?" he asked.

"Yeah," Susan smiled and held out her hand. "Susan Friberg. Pleasure to meet you, Ianto Jones," she smiled as he shook her hand. The contact lasted only for a few seconds, but to Susan it felt like years.

"Likewise," Ianto said. Susan blushed.

"I'd like to have milk and two sugars in my coffee, please," she said, edging towards the staircase.

Ianto smiled. "Sure, I'll see you later," he said, gave reassuring pat on her shoulder and headed towards the kitchen. Susan smiled at his retreating back and turned to face the stairs. She took a deep breath before straightening up her clothes. Unfortunately, she was still wearing her clothes from yesterday: a long woolen jumper with black stripes, dark blue jeans and red converse shoes. For a moment she wished she had chosen a better outfit for their Cardiff tour. Well, it wouldn't do any good to dwell on it now. And it wasn't like they were interested in what she was wearing, anyway.

Susan sighed and climbed up the stairs. It was going to be a very interesting conversation.

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><p>In the mean time, the members of the Torchwood team (excluding Ianto) were seated around the conference room's table. Jack was sitting at the end of the table, with Owen on the right side of him, Gwen beside him, and Tosh on the other side of the table across Owen.<p>

"So, what do we know about her?" Gwen asked, her welsh accent breaking the silence. Jack smiled a bit but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Well, we know that she fainted when she saw me," Owen said smugly.

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I bet."

"Oi! What are you implying?"

Toshiko coughed politely to get their attention, and Jack nodded, turning to face her. Gwen and Owen went silent and Toshiko smiled gratefully at Jack. "Well, we don't actually have much information about her. But we do know that she was somehow connected to the rift spike our monitors picked up late yesterday evening, and she already told us that she is from Finland," Toshiko said. "Plus, there's something about her that reminds me of someone I've seen before..." she started, but Jack cut her off.

"Keep to the facts, Tosh," Jack said. "Did you search her name? Was she in any of the records?"

Toshiko shook her head. "There is no record of any Susan Friberg living in Finland that matches her appearance or even her approximate age. I literally found nothing."

Jack nodded thoughtfully. "Somehow I have a feeling that she is far more complicated than an ordinary rift refugee," Jack said. "Normally they only come through time, but she doesn't seem to exist here."

Gwen frowned at that. "What do you mean Jack, that she doesn't exist here?" she asked. "Are we talking about an alternative universe or something?"

"Well, that's what I bet you're dealing with," a voice said, startling them and making the team to turn towards the source. Susan was leaning against the doorway with an awed expression on her face as her eyes traveled around the room to take in everything.

The whole team was silent as she walked towards the conference table and pulled out a chair next to Toshiko. "Do you mind?" she asked the team, but mainly looking at Jack, who shook his head warily.

Susan sat down and took a very deep breath. She looked around, her eyes wondering to Owen and Jack a few more times than to the others, her lips twitching oddly. "You guys have no idea how hard this is for me," she said. "I'm literally trying not to throw myself on you and start acting like a very, very happy fan girl."

Owen raised his eyebrows. "You're a fan?" he asked skeptically. "A fan of what? Torchwood?"

Susan nodded, staring at Owen. "Yeah, but it's kind of complicated."

Jack leaned backward in his chair. "Then explain, please," he said.

Susan took another deep breath and her eyes found Jack's. "This is going to be very difficult to explain, so please, I ask you to just listen to the whole story before you start laughing or saying that I'm a crazy lunatic or a stalker or..." she rambled and took a breath. Owen looked amused.

"Okay, here we go," Susan started, fumbling with her hands. "Where I come from, aliens don't exist." Jack opened his mouth to say something but Susan cut him off. "At least according to our public knowledge. There's never been alien invasions or anything." She sighed deeply. "And Torchwood, well, I hate to say this, but there's no such thing as Torchwood in my world." There was a brief silence. "Well, of course there is, but it's not... Well, how can I put it? Torchwood isn't real," she said, and as she realized what a failure her speech was, she did the one thing she had promised she would never do in real life. She face palmed.

Owen's lips were twitching as she looked up, and Susan knew that it was only a matter of time before he would start laughing. She sighed. "Okay, let me put this differently," she said. "It all started when I heard about a TV series called Doctor Who," Susan said and looked up at Jack. He looked startled, and was looking at her anxiously.

"Yes, Jack," she rolled her eyes. "It's about him. He's actually the one that made Torchwood as real as it is in my world. Doctor Who is one of the most famous British TV series, and it's been on TV for years," Susan said. "I haven't actually seen the first episodes at all, because they were on TV so long ago that I wasn't even born back then."

Everybody but Jack were confused. "Wait," Owen questioned, "Who is this doctor you are speaking of? Is this the same doctor that Jack knows?"

Jack nodded silently, and Owen dropped the matter for now. Then Jack turned to Susan and looked at her for a moment. "You have watched this show?"

"Yep," Susan smirked. "And it's... Well, he is, absolutely brilliant." Jack seemed to understand what she meant and smiled.

"So, one day, this new character was introduced to the Doctor and his companion Rose," Susan smiled, still looking at Jack. "And his name was Captain Jack Harkness." Jack didn't even try to hide his smirk. Owen snorted, while Gwen and Toshiko seemed more amused than anything.

"In fact, after he left Doctor Who, he had become so popular that the writers decided to give him his own TV series," Susan said and smirked.

"No way!" Gwen laughed.

"Yes!" Susan laughed with her. "And it was called Torchwood. You're all in it."

Jack seemed to be very interested. "Is it a good show?"

Susan smiled at him. "Yeah, well after watching Doctor Who and then changing to the first episode of Torchwood," she started. "Oh, and by the way, Torchwood begins from the day Gwen first met you," she said absentmindedly. "Well, as I was saying... The first episode made it very clear that this wasn't going to be as like Doctor Who at all." She was silent for a moment, and the whole team was staring at her questioningly. "You see, Doctor Who is a bit more family friendly, when Torchwood on the other hand... Umm, well, they showed it only after 9 pm, if you get my drift."

Ianto chose that moment to appear with the coffee. He handed one to Susan and then handed the rest of the team their ones.

"Ianto, please sit down," Susan said and Ianto looked at her, surprised. He sat down anyway as Jack nodded.

Owen scowled. "He's just the tea boy, why did you ask him to sit down?"

Susan's expression turned suddenly dark and she leaned over the table, grabbed Owen by his shirt collar and eyed him coldly. "Owen, dear, as much as I love you as a character, if you act like that towards Ianto while I'm in the room, you will regret it. Badly," she whispered, narrowing her eyes.

Owen didn't seem very impressed, but was struggling to get out of her grip. "Just how important can a tea boy be?" he sneered.

"Do you really want me to compare the number of Ianto's fans to the number of your fans?" she said icily. "I might be your fan too, but Ianto is always the number one on my list of Torchwood characters."

Ianto blushed slightly. Susan let go of Owen and turned her eyes at him, smiling innocently.

"You're completely mental," Owen coughed.

"Thank you," Susan sniffed, her expression not changing as she took a sip of her coffee. Then her expression melted into bliss and she closed her eyes. "No wonder people call this orgasmic coffee," she said. "This is is heavenly."

A very awkward silence followed.

"I didn't say that out loud, did I?"


	4. Serious business

**A/N: **Thanks to all of you who reviewed or put this story to their alerts! It really makes me feel better to know that someone is actually reading this. :P

**Disclaimer:** Doctor Who and Torchwood belong to BBC. I only own the characters you don't recognize.

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><p><strong>Chapter 3: Serious business<strong>

After Susan had succeeded to look like a complete idiot, she hastily told Ianto that she was from a parallel universe where Torchwood was a TV show which she was a big fan of. Then she explained that Ianto's coffee was very much known as the best coffee in the Universe.

"I think his coffee has it's own fandom," Susan said and chuckled at the mental image. People who worshipped coffee probably saw Ianto as their almighty god. Jack nodded solemnly, but the rest of the team looked at her oddly, probably trying to figure out if she was being serious or not.

Ianto looked a bit shocked. "Is my coffee really that good?" he asked.

Susan raised her eyebrows. "As if you don't know it," she said, smirking. "Your most working threat ever over the team is just one word: 'decaf'". Ianto blushed and avoided her eyes.

Susan made an "awwww" noise but decided to stop teasing the poor bloke. "Anyway, I was hoping you guys could have some answers for me," she said, finally turning more serious. She looked towards Jack and Tosh with a solemn expression on her face.

Jack stared at her for a moment, before crossing his arms and nodding. "Ask."

Susan thought carefully before opening her mouth. "Is there any possibility that I might get back to my universe some day?" she asked.

Jack didn't seem to be too surprised about her question, and he glanced at Tosh. Toshiko nodded and turned her eyes towards Susan. "The possibility is so small, that I would say that it is impossible", she said and looked down, obviously feeling bad for the girl.

Susan let out a breath. "Huh, just as I thought," she said and then grinned. "Good thing I love this universe. I wouldn't go home even if I could."

Gwen let out a gaps and frowned at her. "But what about your family and friends?" she asked, her tone disapproving.

Susan shrugged. "It's not that bad. I never really had any best friends and my relationship to my family was always a bit distant," she said. "Besides, I know I was adopted anyway so it's not such a big deal."

Owen raised his eyebrows. "That's a quite mature way of looking at it," he said. "How old are you anyway?"

Susan smirked. "How old do you think I am?"

They all went silent for a moment, eyeing her up and trying to guess her age. Ianto coughed to get her attention. "I would say you are under 20," he said politely.

Susan laughed. "That's a very vague answer Mr. Jones," she teased and then her expression turned into thoughtful one. "But really, I'm not exactly sure how old I am."

"What does that mean?" Jack spoke up.

"Well, I was supposed to turn 19 in two weeks," she said. "But now that I'm here, the time is just a mess. Actually, I'm not even sure what year it is."

Jack let out a chuckle. "Sorry, we had no idea you didn't know," he said. "It's currently 10th of February, 2008."

Susan froze. That meant it was the beginning of the year 2008. She swore inwardly. This was getting really creepy, she decided. One of her favourite characters was going to rule the world where she herself now lived in. She made a quick calculation. If Jack was still here, it meant that End of Days hadn't happened yet. That on the other hand meant that Saxon was already the Minister of Defense and was currently campaigning for Prime Minister.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked. "Is there something wrong with the date?"

Susan shook her head and looked around her. She could see even Owen looking at her a bit worriedly. "Nah, just trying to calculate what part of the series I am right now," she said and plastered a grin on her face. "There's going to be a lot of things to do and things to avoid," she said. "I have general knowledge of the dates when some of the Doctor Who episodes happen, so that means that technically speaking, I could be able to meet him." She grinned a bit wider at the thought.

Jack sighed and pouted. "That's cheating", he said. "I have to wait for him for years and you can just go to a place you know where he will appear."

Susan raised her eyebrows. "Yeah well, Jack," she said slyly, "I heard that you cheat all the time. Especially in naked hide 'n seek." Jack grinned at her and out of the corner of her eye she could see Ianto blushing.

Owen put a hand over his eyes. "Don't want to know what you're talking about", he groaned. "Please do not mention information like that when I'm around."

Susan chuckled. "Sorry, Owen."

Toshiko had been silent all this time, as if she was thinking about something. Finally she spoke up. "Susan, have you tried to contact your parents in this universe?"

Susan's mouth opened. "Huh, didn't even thing about that," she said, and then her eyes got a dark look in them. She slowly turned towards Jack. "That brings us to the incident called '_Jack stole my bag while I was sleeping and I want it back_'," she growled.

Jack tried to grin charmingly but it was ineffective. "Ermmhh, yeah," he muttered and picked her bag from the floor. "Here you go," he said and threw the bag to her. She caught it, still glowering at him. Jack sighed, "Look, I needed to make sure that you had nothing dangerous in there."

Susan's expression changed but then she scowled. "You think I would carry a weapon or something?" she asked. "No way. Weapons are for evil humans and bad guys, I support the Doctor's policy."

Jack tried to look solemn but a grin made it's way to his lips. "I guessed," he said, and at the same time Susan took out her sonic screwdriver.

The team looked at her, amazed. "What's that?" Gwen asked. "It looks a bit like alien tech."

Susan grinned at her. "It is," she said. "This, ladies and gentleman, is a sonic screwdriver."

Owen almost fell out of his seat. "Sonic screwdriver?" he laughed and even Toshiko giggled. "Why would someone need a sonic screwdriver?"

Susan scowled at them. These people had no respect. "This happens to be the device that has saved the Earth for hundred of times", she said. "And besides, have you never been bored?"

Owen didn't look very impressed. "Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, 'Ooh, this could be a little more sonic'?" he asked.

Jack and Susan looked at each other before bursting into laughter. Susan banged the table with her hand, trying to breath but being unable to do so because she was laughing so hard. "Owen..." she gasped, "That's exactly what Jack said the first time he heard about the sonic screwdriver."

Owen looked at the thing on Susan's hands as if it had somehow offended him. Jack had finally seized his laughing and looked at the screwdriver more carefully.

"Anyway, this is just a replica," Susan said, pointed it at scowling Owen and pushed a button. A light appeared with a nice buzzing sound. "It makes the sounds and all, but doesn't actually work."

Jack nodded, "But still, that doesn't look like the one he had when I met him."

Susan bit her lip. "Well, yeah," she said. "You know how time lords can change their face?" Jack nodded. "He's done it after meeting you, and when he does it again... He gets a new sonic screwdriver. The old one gets broken."

Jack looked a bit concerned. "But I thought that time lords only regenerate when they're dying?"

The rest of the team went silent, all understanding what Jack was saying. Susan nodded, her expression blank. "Exactly."

Toshiko broke the heavy silence. "Do you have your mobile with you?"

Susan nodded and took it out of her bag. "Yeah," she said. "Here it is. Should I try to call my parents or something?"

Toshiko nodded, and Jack looked thoughtful. "Even if this works, I doubt they would even know you. We found no information about you from any of the databases. You don't exist," he said.

Susan bit her lip. "Yeah, well, I have to give it a try," she said and dialed her mum's number. She didn't even have time to hear the dial tone before she heard the announcement that the number was not in use. The same happened with her dad's phone, and her cousin's.

Gwen looked sad. "I'm sorry," she said.

Susan just waved her hand at her. "It's okay, as I said. They're not really my parents so it's not such a big deal," she said. "Besides, I like it here, with so much things that could happen."

"Or things that could go wrong..." Jack said, eyeing Susan carefully.

Susan raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"If you ever meet him, are you going to try to change things?" he asked. "You told us that with the information you have gathered from watching the show, you could probably change many things."

Susan thought about it and shook her head. "No, I don't think so," she said. "Aside from the fact that things could already be changing just because I'm in this universe. But if I meet him, I'm just going to go along with it. There's no fun in blowing a hole in the time-space-continuum by changing something that wasn't meant to be changed." She thought back to the Waters of Mars episode and shuddered. "Or cause something even worse to happen."

* * *

><p>It was 12 AM when Ianto decided to fetch lunch for all of them. He asked Susan what she would like to eat, and Susan just stared at him. There was a brief silence, until she smiled again.<p>

"I don't know, what kind of lunch does your restaurant serve?" Susan questioned.

"Well, most of us just order pizza," Gwen said helpfully and Ianto nodded in confirmation. Susan glanced at her and then back to Ianto, who was preparing to write down her order.

"How about a pizza with pepperoni and ham? It's my favourite," she said and grinned.

"Good choice," said Ianto Jones politely and then disappeared through the cog wheel door. Susan stared at the door for a moment, surprised by his quick disappearance. Ianto Jones. More like James Bond with that suit, she thought and grinned at the mental image. She was, however startled out of her musings when Jack appeared beside her.

He eyed her for a minute, before saying: "I guess you have no place to go in this world." Susan raised her eyebrows, not quite seeing where this conversation was going.

"You can sleep on the couch for a few nights, but I think you should get your own apartment and start looking for job," he said thoughtfully.

Susan scowled. "Aww man, and here I was hoping that maybe you were inviting me to sleep with you," she said with a dramatic sigh.

Jack's lips twitched. "I'm being serious," he said.

It was turn for Susan's lips to twitch. "But you can't be, you're not Sirius," she said.

Jack scowled. "I just said I am!"

"No, no, no. You're not Sirius, you're Jack!" Susan smirked. It took Jack a few seconds to understand that Susan had tricked him.

"Really?" Jack sighed, rolling his eyes. "Harry Potter?"

"Best books in the world," she said and her grin turned smug. "And the Doctor likes them too," she added remembering the scene in the Shakespeare Code and saw Jack's expression change.

"You know much about him, don't you?" he said quietly, as if hoping that the rest of the team wouldn't hear them. It was quite hopeless though, because Owen was sitting on a couch just a few meters away from them, whispering with Gwen. And they were probably talking about her.

"Yep, I know a lot about him," Susan smirked. "But no, I'm not telling you. You have to find out yourself." Jack looked angry for a moment, but soon his expression faded into a disappointed one. Susan gulped and turned her eyes away from the sight. There was no way she was going to tell Jack about the future just because he looked cute.

A good ten minutes later Ianto was back with their lunch. Susan endured Jack's puppy dog eyes, and was proud of herself for not telling anything. Sure, it had been dangerously close. But in the end, Jack had given up and said that it was dangerous business to meddle with time lines anyway, and that she had passed the test he had set up for her. Still, Susan wondered if Jack had really been testing her, or if he had really wanted for her to tell him about the future. She might never know.

"Mmmmm," Susan made a noise between the bites of the delicious pizza. "This is really good! Better than in Finland," she added. In Finland, there was really only one brand of pizzerias that you could trust to make good pizza, but even there the pizza wasn't always this good.

"Really?" said Jack absentmindedly, taking a bite of his own.

"What is it like to live in Finland?" Tosh asked curiously.

Susan grinned at her. "Well, the climate changes during the year are so huge, that the people living there are continuously under a huge stress. So no wonder people get mad like me," she said, still grinning. The team stared at her, and she just laughed, waving the matter of.

"What kind of language is Finnish?" Tosh asked a bit more hesitantly this time.

Jack nodded at her question, thinking about the same thing. "I noticed that your accent got more obvious when you got angry. It sounded interesting."

Susan blushed. "Ugh," she groaned. "I hate Finnish accents. They sound absolutely horrible."

Gwen smiled at her. "Don't worry sweetie, we can barely hear it when you speak normally," she said, her Welsh accent thick, trying to make her feel better.

Susan smiled back. "Thanks," she said. "Good to know. But if I hate Finnish accents, I absolutely love all kind of British accents.. Welsh, English... Scottish," she sighed. "Scottish accents are just something I love over anything else."

Owen snorted. "Why?" he asked.

Susan just shrugged. "I dunno," she said thoughtfully. "All my friends back home said that they have hard time understanding people who are speaking with Scottish accent. But I understand it perfectly and find it soothing."

* * *

><p>After a few minutes of silence, they all finished with their lunch and everyone headed to do their work. Susan just hovered awkwardly around the Hub, looking around but not having the courage to ask anybody for something to do to kill time.<p>

That's when Toshiko looked up from her computer, looked around to check that they weren't being watched, and then signaled for Susan to come and stand beside her.

"What's up Tosh?" she asked happily. Once more, Tosh looked around her and then looked seriously at Susan. Susan's happy grin faded as she saw Tosh's serious expression.

"I found something," Tosh whispered and started typing something furiously at her keyboard. "I made a few searches by the pictures that Hub's surveillance cameras took of you, and I found one match."

Susan was dumbfounded. She had thought that there was no Susan Friberg in this world. Then Toshiko clicked something and the information appeared on the screen, accompanied by the picture in question. Susan paled as she saw it.

"You're Harold Saxon's stepsister."


	5. Mirror, mirror

**A/N: **Hiya!

Sorry that I'm a bit late with this. I was planning on writing this on last week, but I was sick and too tired to do anything constructing.

I hope you all like it! Remember to review.

**Warnings: **Mentions of _slash_ (men/men relationships), spoilers for _Doctor Who _seasons 1-6 (new series) and _Torchwood_ seasons 1-4.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Torchwood or Doctor Who. I wish I did, though.*** **Shakes fist** * **Moffat!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: Mirror, mirror<strong>

"_You're Harold Saxon's stepsister."_

Those innocent sounding words startled Susan so much that she swayed, fell down and almost broke Toshiko's computer desk at the same time. Toshiko gasped and helped her up.

"This is not happening," Susan muttered, her thoughts swirling around her head in a big _wibbley wobbley timey wimey ball_. It was impossible. Well, not impossible. Just very, very improbable.

Toshiko raised her eyebrows. "Is this a bad thing?" she asked.

Susan choked down a hysterical laugh that was threatening to come out of her mouth. "Yeah, kind of," she said and took a deep breath. Running her fingers through her hair she looked back at Toshiko who seemed confused and a bit concerned. Then her eyes traveled back to the screen.

There he was: Harold Saxon, the current Minister of Defense. He was standing next to a brown haired girl with a bright smile on his face, his left arm in a friendly embrace around the girl's shoulder. The girl, who just seemed to bear a striking resemblance to Susan, was smiling too, but the smile seemed a bit fake.

She looked so old, Susan wondered. How many years had passed since this day? And why in the world was she posing as Harold Saxon's stepsister? Susan felt very confused. She knew that technically speaking it was possible that she had somehow met the Master in the future and then traveled back in time with him... But why? She didn't think she would make such a choice even though the Master was one of her favourite characters of all time. She's rather be with the Doctor.

But then, again, if she was only seen as the Doctor's companion, it would be a lot harder to try to speak civilly with the Master. Damn. Fan girl logic was complicated.

Susan looked back at Tosh. "Uh, but anyway, don't worry about it," she said and waved her hand, acting like it was no big deal. Even though it really was. What the hell was going to happen in the future, she thought.

_'Yeah, and you really should wonder if this idea was your or his_', the voice inside her head remarked. The voice did have a valid point. After all, Susan was a big fan of the Master. But it could also be his plan to kidnap one of the Doctor's companions or something... Uh. Maybe not.

Susan had to try hard to focus back on the present time. She looked around the base to ensure that no one else was listening, and then turned to Toshiko. It would be kind of awkward if the rest of the team heard whose stepsister she was.

Susan leaned towards Toshiko. "Can you please keep quiet about this?" she said in a hushed tone, eyes piercing hers.

Toshiko was a bit uncertain. "Not even Jack?" she asked quietly.

Susan's eyes widened and she winced at the thought. Great. She had almost forgotten Jack. Jack, who got killed by the Master several times and hated his guts. He was _so_ going to kill her if the stepsister thingy was her idea. Damn.

'_You're screwed_', the voice snickered.

"Especially not Jack," Susan said, ignoring the voice and scratched her neck awkwardly. She tried hard to think of something intelligent to say. "Look, Tosh. This is kind of important," she said seriously. "Do not tell Jack about this, and if he asks you to compare my pictures with the database again, please say that there was no matches." At least, Susan could be in good terms with Jack until later when he will find out about _the thing_.

_The thing_, Susan mused. _More like the Issue. Wait, isn't there a tabloid called the Big Issue in UK? I think I've seen some of those sellers around here..._

_'You're spacing out again, fan girl,'_ the voice said. Susan just made her best impression of a mental glare.

"Susan, are you okay?" Toshiko asked, clearly concerned about her mental wellbeing.

Susan smiled. "Oh, sure. I'm just great and dandy," she said dryly. "And now I'm starting to sound extremely stupid," she said and rolled her eyes. "Ignore me, I'm babbling."

"Okay..." Toshiko said slowly and turned back to her computer. Just as she was going to delete the page containing the picture and an article about Harold Saxon, Susan stopped her.

"Uhh, can you give me a copy of that before you destroy it?" she said quietly.

Toshiko looked at her oddly but nodded. She printed it out, and a few minutes later handed the copy to Susan, who took hold of it carefully and then put the copy in her bag.

Toshiko deleted the article and her user history. "So, do you have anything in mind for the future?" Toshiko asked. "I mean, you're only eighteen?" Toshiko continued, trying to create a normal conversation that didn't include weird paradoxes.

Susan chuckled darkly and sat down on a computer chair next to Toshiko. Yeah, what did she have in mind for the future? Or should she say, if the things were going as she though they were, _for the past, future and all the time in existence. _

_'You're starting to sound a lot like the Doctor'_, the voice said with amusement. Susan made the mental glare again. _There's nothing wrong with sounding like the Doctor_, she thought back.

Susan looked back at Tosh. "Oh, I have a few ideas," she trailed off, a strange smile on her lips. It really wasn't doing any good to hide her currently unstable mental state. "But mostly, I suppose your boss is going to support me financially so that I can get a flat somewhere. Then I'll just get a job and start saving money for my studies. I'm so going to apply for Oxford University, while I'm here," she grinned, getting excited. Then she remembered one little thing and her good mood was gone. She had no identification except for her passport. No birth certificate, nothing.

"Umm," Susan started, biting her lip, "Do you think you guys could help me with that? I mean, you could make me some kind of birth certificates and those things that are required for attending schools, right?"

Toshiko smiled. "Of course. We always help the rift refugees. And I guess, since you don't really exist here, we can use your real name too."

Susan's mood suddenly darkened. "Idon'twanttousemyrealname," she muttered.

Tosh blinked. "What?"

Susan smiled sheepishly and scratched her neck again. "I said, I don't want to use my real name," she said, slowly this time.

Toshiko raised here eyebrows. "Why not? What's wrong with your name?"

"Well, for starters, I've always wanted to change it. Now that I have a free opportunity to do so, why not?" she said and grinned. "I was thinking something like Amelia Pond. It's like a name in a fairytale, don't you think?"

Toshiko blinked and nodded. "I guess."

Susan stared at her for a moment before an understanding expression came upon her face. "Right," she muttered. "All of my jokes are going to waste here. Even the lamest ones."

A silence followed.

"I don't understand," Toshiko said slowly.

Susan sighed and rose up, heading towards the kitchen. "Don't worry, neither does anyone else," she said and disappeared through the doorway

* * *

><p>"Ah, Ianto, just the man I wanted to see!" Susan exclaimed happily and clapped her hands together. Ianto, who was currently leaning against the kitchen counter and sipping his coffee, just raised his eyebrows at her.<p>

Susan sniffed the air and looked at Ianto. Or more precisely at his coffee cup. Ianto followed the line of her eyes and seemed to get the idea. "You want me to make you coffee?" he asked.

"I knew you would understand!" Susan said and smiled brightly, patting him on his shoulder. Her hand stayed on his shoulder a moment too long, but then she took it away and turner around. "I'll be sitting on the couch," she said without looking back, and disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.

Ianto just stood there, standing still with the coffee cup in one hand, and the other hand touching his shoulder on the place her hand had been. '_That felt strange,_' he thought, confused. '_For some reason I got a feeling that she was apologizing for something.'_

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later Ianto headed towards the Hub couch with a hot cup of coffee in his hands. But what he saw, surprised him so much that he stopped and stared. The girl who just a few minutes earlier had been so excited, happy and friendly, was now sitting at the black leather couch, reading a piece of paper, biting her lip and tugging her hair nervously. She seemed to be pondering about something really hard.<p>

"I've got your coffee," Ianto said, stopping in front of her. Susan looked up, and for a moment she really looked like a frightened child lost in a different world that she was. But the moment was gone so quickly that Ianto almost thought he had imagined the whole thing. Her happy facade was up again, and she grinned widely, taking the coffee in her hands.

"Thank you, Jones, Ianto Jones," she said and grinned as Ianto was startled by her choice of words. "I'm sure you have better things to do than making me coffee, so you can go back to work now," she said, still smiling.

Ianto eyes her for a moment and nodded politely. "Tell me if you need anything."

"Yeah," Susan said distractedly and looked back at the papers on her lap.

As Ianto Jones walked away, he realized something. The expression on Susan's face had been distantly familiar to him, and no wonder - he had seen it on the mirror during many months. It was the same expression he had been wearing when he had been hiding the cyberman in the Hub's cellars. That girl had something to hide, and it was something big.


	6. Random shoes

**A/N: **Hi again!

This is a bit short, I know, but bear with me. Inspiration just hit me on the shower today (which isn't unusual at all for me), and I just knew I had to write some more today. I have really good plans for this story, believe me. :)

Remember to review. Reviews are cool.

**Warnings: **Mentions of _slash _(men/men relationships), spoilers for _Doctor Who _seasons 1-6 (new series) and _Torchwood _seasons 1-4.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Torchwood_ or _Doctor Who_.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5: Random shoes<strong>

Susan sighed and lowered down the piece of paper in her hands. Things were really getting complicated. First, just the whole fact the she knew about the future through the Doctor Who series and spinn-offs, was dangerous. She knew she would have to handle her knowledge with care.

_But then this happens_, Susan thought and looked down at the paper. It was a news article about the Harold Saxon, who had recently visited his old high school accompanied by stepsister. Apparently Susan Williams, as she was called in the article, was related to Mr. Saxon by her fathers side.

Susan was sure that just by reading the article, she was already creating a paradox. Because she now knew about what was going to happen and if she wouldn't do anything to stop it, it would happen the same way. And the idea of changing the future didn't seem too appealing to her. _Oh joy._

"Is everything okay?" Jack asked, startling her. He had quietly moved to stand in front of her.

Susan looked up. "Yeah," she said and grinned. "Why do you ask?"

Jack eyed her for a moment. "Ianto mentioned that something might be bothering you," he said. Susan just raised her left eyebrow sceptically at him. "It's true, I swear," Jack said, thinking back to earlier that day.

* * *

><p>He was sitting by his desk in his office, occasionally glancing through the glass wals to ensure that nothing strange was going on in the Hub. He had some paperwork to do, but since he didn't like doing paperwork, he was trying to figure out what to do instead. At the times like those he sometimes hoped that something would happen to take his mind off things that were going trough his head. Like the Doctor, for example.<p>

Jack often thought about the Doctor. The Doctor had abandoned him alone on the Satellite Five, andkle deep in Dalek dust and unable to die permanently. He often wondered of the Doctor had known that, or if he had just thought that Jack was dead. But then there came the question, why didn't the Doctor try to come and collect his body?

No matter what, Jack missed the Doctor. Sure, for the first hundred of years he ahd been mad of him, but he missed him all the same. He was just so... exciting. And of course, he was gorgeous in his leather jacket glory and all, even if those ears were just ridiculous. He was attracted to the Doctor. So what? He wasn't a man who denied something like that. Jack idly wondered what the Doctor looked like now. Apparently, he had regenerated.

And now that the rift had finally fulfilled his wishes and sent him a distraction in a form of a young woman, she had just made Jack think about the Doctor even more. TV show called Doctor Who. Sure, the name was a bit strange, but it fit. He had himself thought "Doctor Who?" a few times. But now it seemed that he might never get to ask that question again. Unless...

No, he decided, shaking his head. He wouldn't ask the girl about meeting the Doctor again. It wouldn't be fair to her, considering that it could change the timelines and she would surely feel responsible if something like that happened.

But then there was the fact that Susan also told them about another TV show, this time called Torchwood. And it was about hsi whole team. It was a bit more interesting to him, as Susan really seemed to know his whole team very well, and not just Jack or the Doctor. She even seemed to know a lot about Owen, who was pretty much the hardest one to read. She probably even knew when his team would die. And if they were deaths by Torchwood. Jack decided not to think about it, so he glanced down at the paperwork. Ugh.

Just then, the gods that Jack didn't believe in, sent him a saving angel in the form of Ianto Jones.

"Sir?" Ianto enquired from the doorway, a tray filled with two cups of coffee in his delicate hands.

Jack smiled gratefully at Ianto and nodded him to come inside. Ianto set the tray on his desk, that amazing as it was, wasn't covered in papers. Maybe some of Ianto's tidiness was affecting him.

Jack took his blue striped mug in his hands and leaned back in his chair, looking at Ianto. "What brings you here, Ianto?" he asked offhandedly with a smug smile, "Besides me, of course."

Ianto's expression didn't change, but there was an amused sparkle in his eyes. He shook his head and tried to cool down the coffee in his hand. The silence lasted for a few minutes while Ianto tried to think of the right words to say.

"I think that something is bothering Susan Friberg," he said and looked down at his coffee.

Jack raised his eyebrows at that. To his knowlede the girl seemed to be very happy to be here and very optimistic too. Had something happened to her during her stay in the Hub that she was starting to change her mind?

Jack noted the serious expression Ianto's face. "Is that so?" he asked, his expression slowly turning into serious one too.

Ianto nodded, still not making eye contact. "Yes. There was something about her expression that I recognised from the time..." he trailed of for a few seconds and swallowed. "From the time I was keeping Lisa here."

"So you think she's hiding something from us?" Jack asked. Ianto nodded. Now, that definitely sparked Jack's interest. Jack hoped that it wouldn't be anything as dangerous as the cyberman.

"I suppose I could talk with her," Jack said thoughfully. "But don't expect miracles. If she's worrying about the future, there's really nothing we can do about it."

* * *

><p>"Jack? Earth to Jack," Susan said, waving his hand before Jack's eyes.<p>

Jack stared back at the girl who looked amused and a bit mischievous. In her head, Susan had been imagining something like the two of them kissing and a hastily said 'I'm worried about the girl' phrase, so no wonder if she seemed a bit fangirlish.

Jack rolled his eyes at Susan's expression and half smiled at her at the same time. "He's just worried about you, said that you looked troubled," Jack said.

Susan furrowed her brows thoughtfully. "Do I look worried?" It's not very good thing to look worried if one wants to blend in. Kind of.

"Not really," Jack stated. "But as I said to him, if you're worried, you're probably thinking about future and your knowledge. Right?" he asked.

Susan gulped and turned her eyes away. "Well yeah, kind of", she said. "But you know that I can't tell you about it."

Jack shrugged, "I could take some retcon after you told me."

Susan's eyes widened at the suggestion, but soon she just grimaced and eyed Jack with a kind of depressed expression on her face. "You wouldn't take it," she said quietly.

Jack narrowed her eyes at her. "What do you mean?"

Susan just looked at him with a unreadable expression and a strange glint in her eyes. "You wouldn't take the retcon after I told you about it. There is no way you would do it, even if you were to promise to do so," she said and looked straight into Jack's eyes. Then she turned away. "No one would."

* * *

><p>One day later, sometimes around midday, it happened. Susan was sitting at her usual place on the couch, drawing random pictures of animals, when the alarm blared and the cog wheel door opened. Gwen, followed by Owen and Ianto, stepped through the door.<p>

"I want to know what he last ate, where he'd been..." Gwen said loudly.

Susan looked up from her drawings. She was sure she had heard that line before. She got up as Gwen lowered a box on the coffee table. Aha, she grinned. It was the episode Random Shoes. She had always loved that one.

"What was he doing out on that road?" Gwen asked, frowning.

Owen rolled his eyed. "Fuck knows. Categorizing chevrons. He was a geek," Owen said sharply, also lowering a box down.

"Oi!" Susan yelled before she could stop herself, "There's nothing wrong with being a geek!"

It was only then that Owen and Gwen seemed to notice her.

"Oh, hello Susan," Gwen said and smiled, "How have you been?"

Susan shrugged. "A bit bored, but okay. I'm going to start searching for my own flat today. Jack has been doing some money magic and making me fake IDs."

"How nice," Gwen said in a way that reminded Susan of a mom speaking to a child. She wasn't that young, for god's sake. "But we're in a middle of a investigation, would you mind...?" Gwen trailed off.

Susan smirked at her. "Yeah, yeah, of course," she said and made her way quickly towards the place where the Doctor's hand was in a jar before Gwen could remember that Susan probably knew how to solve the case.

"Hey Eugene," she whispered to the empty space around her, keeping her eyes in the Doctor's hand. "Yeah, sorry if I startled you. I can't see you, but I know you're here somewhere," she continued.

"Did you say something?" Gwen yelled. Susan rolled her eyes and yelled back a 'no'.

She looked around her, hoping that Eugene had stayed still and not yet wandered to the autopsy area. "Look, I'm sorry that this happened to you. But everything is going to be okay. You've got the best team ever working on this: Torchwood. You... You guys will get this sorted out," she grinned in what could be only described as a encouraging way.

After a while she was still standing there and she knew that Eugene was probably already gone. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, she hadn't gotten very much sleep last night. Good thing that she was going to go shopping and flat hunting later that day.

"Yeah, everything is going to be just fine."


	7. Responsible adult

****A/N: ****I'm back! :D

Thanks everyone for reviewing, they've kept me going with this story. Please remember to review in the future too!

**Warnings: **Mentions of _slash _(men/men relationships), spoilers for _Doctor Who _seasons 1-6 (new series) and _Torchwood _seasons 1-4.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Torchwood_ or _Doctor Who_.**  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6: Responsible adult<strong>

Susan sighed and looked down at the map she was holding. The team had forged her an identification and a new passport, also they had given her a credit card with a Torchwood logo and her name written on it. Susan thought it was a bit too much, but took it happily anyway. Ianto had offered to come shopping with her, but Susan had just thrown him a look that told him clearly what she thought about that. After all, she wasn't a baby anymore. She was now officially 19 years old. And screwed.

Susan had been good at orienteering when at school, but this was just a bit too much for her. After eating lunch at a Starbucks she had bought all the clothes she needed, by a simple method of going from one store to another looking for reasonable cheap and good looking clothes. She bought two pairs of jeans, three simple t-shirts, two long sleeved shirts and some underwear. And of course, it didn't cross her mind to keep her eyes on the map as she moved, and that's how she got lost.

_'What am I going to do now?'_ Susan thought. _'I can't just call Jack or Ianto and say, "Hey, I think I'm lost, can you come to pick me up? Yeah, sorry, don't know where I am."'_

_'You could always ask someone,_' the voice in her head remarked. '_After all, you're not a man. So you don't have that stupid urge to show that you don't need to ask directions from anyone.'_

Susan chuckled at that. _'Yeah, well that's a good idea,'_ she thought back. Then she spotted a perfect coat in a window of a shop. '_I'll do that. Right after I've bought that coat.'_

In Susan's defense, it was a really good looking coat. And quite expensive too. But she happily tested it on and bought it. The coat was long, almost down to her knees, with brass colored buttons. It almost looked like it was straight from an old movie from the early 19th century. And she loved it.

After coming out from the shop Susan continued her journey for a few minutes before remembering that she was lost. Rolling her eyes at her own stupidity, she picked the nearest shop that looked customer friendly and decided to ask for directions from the staff there. It just happened to be an old looking book shop called _Manson Books_, so Susan was happy that she could also browse the books for some light reading at the same visit.

The bell gave a tinkling sound as she pushed the door open, her hands full of shopping bags. The store looked different, like nothing she had ever seen in Finland. It was filled with books of old and new from the floor to the ceiling, and there were even piles of books on the floor, looking like they didn't fit on the book shelves. There weren't any other customers inside.

Susan raised her eyebrows at that. Looked like the owner cared more about the books themselves than selling them. At the moment that thought struck her, she noticed an old man sitting behind the counter, reading a book. There were many book piles on the counter too, and the man, who looked to be in his early sixties, with graying hair and reading glasses, looked almost young compared to the some of the books that surrounded him.

The old man finally glanced up from his book. "Oh, good morning!" he greeted her, smiling kindly and correcting his glasses Susan walked towards the counter.

"Morning," Susan smiled and lowered her bags on the floor. "I just came inside to ask you about –" she started, but was quickly interrupted by the man.

"Oh," he said, in a clearly interested voice and corrected his glasses again. "Are you here about the job?"

Susan swallowed the words that she was going to say and her eyes widened. "Huh?"

"That one there," the old man said and pointed to the shop window. Susan glanced towards it. There was a tiny piece of paper attached to the glass. _A SHOP ASSISTAND NEEDED. LODGINGS INCLUDED. MATTER OF PAYMENT CAN BE DISCUSSED._

"Umm, actually—," Susan started a bit sheepishly, but the man smiled at her so kindly that she couldn't find any part of her that could to protest. She swallowed. Why not? A bookstore would be an interesting place to work in, and she needed the money and place to stay. "Yes."

The man smiled at her and looked up at her with interest. He was after all, quite short. "So, I assume you enjoy books and reading, miss?" he asked.

Susan nodded. "Yes," she said. "Mister…?"

The man clapped his hands in excitement and walked around the counter to shook her hand with enthusiasm. "Mason," he said. "Arthur Manson."

Susan blinked. "Right," she said. "Nice to meet you Mr. Manson. My name is Susan Friberg."

"Yes, yes," Mr. Manson smiled. "You seem to be a very bright lass, miss Friberg. Can I call you Susan?" he asked.

Susan nodded. "Of course," she said and grinned. "If I can call you Arthur."

Arthur laughed. "Of course, of course!" he said. "Now, would you like to discuss the matter of payment? And I assume you will be needing the lodgings?"

"Yes, please," Susan said. "I came here to start my studies but I need some money before I can do that," she continued. "I didn't think it would be so expensive in here. In Finland, the university is completely free."

It was Arthur's time to blink in surprise. "Really?" he asked. "You're from Finland?"

Susan nodded. Arthur eyed her for a moment. "Wouldn't have gotten it from your accent," he said. "You sound quite English to me."

Susan chuckled. "Hah, thanks for the compliment," she said and then a thought came to her. "You're not Welsh, are you? You sound English too."

Arthur nodded. "Yes, I moved here after I met my wife," he said. "Since then, I haven't been able to move away. I've grown fond of this place."

Susan understood perfectly. "Yeah, I know the feeling," she said. "I've only been here a week or so, and I'm already thinking I'd like to stay here for a very long while."

There was a brief silence until Arthur clapped his hands again. "I haven't kept a shop assistant before," he confessed. "But I was thinking that maybe 9 pounds an hour would a fitting payment for you?"

"Sure," Susan said. It was a bit more than she had thought, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Arthur continued. "We open at ten, and close at six. You can of course have your dinner around 12 any time when there's not too much clients, and then of course you have Sundays off." He started walking towards a door with a sign on it that read _STAFF ONLY_.

Susan followed him, nodding. "Sounds good," she said as they went through the door. The first room was a kitchen. There was a small table in the middle of the room, and a small TV on the counter next to the fridge.

"This, as you can see, is the kitchen," Arthur said. "I'd prefer if you bought your own food, since I'm not eating that much in my old days, so I'm afraid there wouldn't be enough food for you."

They moved through a doorway and Arthur beckoned towards the door at the end of the hallway. "That's my rooms and bathroom," he said. "I suggest you do not enter there, if it's not an emergency. I like to keep my privacy."

Susan nodded. "Of course," she said, and then glanced at the stairs.

Arthur noticed her gaze. "That's the upstairs, your room and bathroom are there. It used to belong to my daughter, but she moved away and very rarely visits anymore," he said.

Susan felt a bit awkward about his daughter, but walked up the stairs and took a look around anyway. The bathroom was a bit tiny, but there was a shower, a mirror and a toilet, and she didn't need anything else so she didn't have a reason to coplain.

Next she moved to the only other room on the floor and to her surprise, it was bigger than she had expected. There was a walk-in closet in one corner, a bookshelf right next to it and a large window with a view to the street she had walked on just minutes before. It was decorated in a very old-ish fashion, but it didn't look too bad. There was also everything she needed there; a large bed, a nightstand with a lamp on it, a small wooden desk and a chair.

Susan went back down and grinned at Arthur who was waiting for her. "It's brilliant," she said.

Arthur smiled. "Good to know it's sufficient," he said. "Now, is there any questions you would like to ask?"

"Only one," she said. "Could you point me this place on the map? I'm lost."

* * *

><p><em>Eyre St. 12, Cardiff, February 12th, 2008<em>

"Yes, it's Eyre Street number 12. The store is called Manson Books," Susan said to the phone and sat down on her new bed. Mr. Manson had no objections of her starting right away, and since Susan already had all of the possessions with her, she was more than happy to start living in her new home.

Jack was amazed at how fast she had gotten a job, especially one that included free lodgings, that is. He kept asking Susan if she was sure that there hadn't been any misunderstandings.

"Dammit, Jack, you know my English is good enough for me to live in here," she growled to the phone. "I understand everyone perfectly, even the Welsh people."

"_Sorry,_" Jack said. "_But it's just a bit strange, that's all. But are you sure you want to move in so soon?_"

Susan rolled her eyes. Jack was starting to sound like a very over protecting parent who was worrying about his daughter moving in with her boyfriend. "Yes," she said. "I've always dreamed of working in a book store, and this is the perfect chance. And anyway, this actually isn't that far away from the bay," she said and looked at the map. "I didn't notice I was moving in circles," she said dryly.

Jack laughed at that. "_Well, I guess that's it then. Please call if you have any troubles in the future – _" he said and his voice faded a little. "_Hey! Give me that!_"

There was a wrestling noise and Ianto's voice came through the phone: "_And maybe you could come over for a coffee sometimes?_" Susan stifled her giggles. Ianto had really seemed to take a liking to her. And it was a good thing, since she wanted to meet him again before the CoE would happen. Before it was too late.

There was another wrestling noise, and Jack seemed to get the phone back. He coughed awkwardly. "_Yes, feel free to visit us sometimes when you're not too busy. That is, if you want. But please call us beforehand, it will be more safe that way._"

"Yeah, I'll definitely come to visit you guys sometime in the future," she said happily, and smirked. "At least when you're not too busy dealing with aliens."

Jack laughed once more and they said their goodbyes.

After closing the phone, Susan started thinking. Would there be enough time to meet the team again before Jack was whisked off to the End of the Universe with the Doctor? Damn, she thought. If her memory served her right, End of Days would be happening in February. That gave her only a few days to plan her goodbyes to Jack before he left, since she was pretty sure that Jack would be angry with her about the Saxon thing later on.

Susan cursed her stupid fascination with the bad guys. It was always the bad guys. It really was a wonder she hadn't ended up in the Potterverse and gone off gallivanting with the Dark Lord and his death munchers.

'_You're being ridiculous again,'_ the voice in her head remarked.

'_Well yeah,_' thought Susan. '_Who are you to say such things? I should be calling the men in the white coats just for hearing you all the time. As it is said in one of the Potter movies, hearing voices is never a good things,_' she remarked.

The voice was silent after that.


	8. A mystery package

**A/N:** Helloouuu!

You won't believe how exited I was while writing this chapter! I've finally reached the point I've been waiting for almost a year now.

Please, remember to review, I really need to know what you think about this chapter.

**Warnings:** Some strong language in this chapter. Mentions of _slash_ (men/men relationships), spoilers for _Doctor Who_ seasons 1-6 (new series) and _Torchwood_ seasons 1-4.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Torchwood_ or _Doctor Who_.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7: A mystery package<strong>

Days passed slowly for Susan. She worked in the Manson Books, and when they didn't have any customers, she spent her time arranging some of the older books Mr. Manson had collected over the years. They were a bit more expensive than the new books and bestsellers that kept coming every week, and therefore they had their own little corner in the shop. Susan even found a very old copy of the Lord of the Rings.

She did try to keep up with the things that were happening in the universe, mainly because she wanted to know where she was standing on the Doctor's timeline, and happened to be watching the news when they reported that the Royal Hope hospital had just disappeared. Some people kept saying that they had been in the moon, but most of them just said they were hallucinating from the lack of oxygen.

Susan, however, knew better. And so did the Minister of Defense, who kept insisting that this was a clear sign of extraterrestrial activity and it should be thoroughly investigated. Susan thought it was kind of humorous how an alien was trying to prove to humans that aliens existed.

Then one day, when Susan getting ready to take over the shop in time for Arthur's lunch break, Arthur gave a large paper package to her. "This was delivered this morning while you were sorting out those books in the storage room," he said.

Susan raised her eyes and took if from him. "Thanks," she said and put it on the counter.

"Have you been following the election?" Arthur asked curiously while putting his jacket on.

Susan nodded, having read about it in the paper. Saxon was leading the polls with 64 percent. "Yeah, Saxon's in the lead now, right?" she asked nonchalantly.

"That he is," Arthur said and started unconsciously tapping the counter in a four-beat rhythm. "I think might vote for him myself. Good bloke."

Susan eyed him nervously and swallowed. "Yeah..." she muttered.

Arthur looked down at his watch. "Must dash now," he said and opened the door. "I'll see you later."

Susan just stared at the door for a while. It really was creepy to see how people thought Saxon was so trustworthy, and no one noticed how they immediately started doing the "dum dum dum dum" beat while thinking about him.

She turned around and eyed the curious package for a while, before surrendering and ripping it open.

"Ooh, goodie," Susan said and whistled. The largest item in the packaging was a shoulder bag made from dark leather. It looked old, but the worn out look just gave it a cool 'I use second hand items' vibe. It had many little pockets on the sides, and more than anything, it looked amazingly practical.

The second item was a bit odd. It looked like an identification that police and other civil servants used, with a fake leather casing around it and all that. But when she looked at it more carefully, the text started wavering and finally the whole thing went blank.

Susan's eyes widened. '_Is this what I think it is?_' Susan thought and stared at the ID, which was now looking like a student card. '_It couldn't be,_' she decided and put it aside. '_My eyes are tricking me, that's all.'_

Then she took a look at the last item, and decided that oh yes, the previous one definitely was psychic paper.

'_This,_' she thought, '_Is absolutely mad._'

On the bottom of the brown paper package was an exact replica of the 11th Doctor's screwdriver. It looked just like the one Susan had in her room. '_But wait a second_', she thought and picked it up. Instead of normal plastic, it was be a bit more heavy... and the plastic parts that looked like metal in the toy version had been changed into real metal.

'_I've gone bonkers_,' Susan decided, her eyes wide. '_This can't actually be the 11th Doctor's screwdriver._'

She put the screwdriver aside and peered back into the paper bag. There was a Vote Saxon poster there (making Susan's lips twitch slightly), and a handwritten note, written in a very familiar handwriting.

_Hello there!_

_I am currently writing to myself. Isn't that mad? Well, anyway, I thought you might need  
>these things on your travels. Well, I knew you were going to need them, so I sent them to you. <em>

_Don't worry, it's not really a paradox. It's more like a... self-fulfilling prophecy. I remember reading  
>this note, so I know what to write. And I got <span>my<span> own personal items in mail, so I knew what I needed  
>to do when I actually found them. And no, I'm not telling you how I got my hands on these.<br>Except for the screwdriver. It's actually the same replica that you have, I've just had some changes made  
>in it by an evil villain. You know who I mean. Attached to this note is a brief guide to using it.<br>And sorry, I can't tell you everything about it. Some things you have to find out by yourself._

_Don't worry too much, even though I know you're going to so this really isn't helping. _

_Anyway..._

_The bag is, what I call, a Mary Poppins bag. It's bigger on the inside. Time lord technology or something,  
>I'd reckon. At least from looking at it. It really is an old bag. I'd suggest me to start carrying the most<br>important things in this bag from now on, and taking it everywhere you go. Because if you don't,  
>then you're screwed. You never know what's going to happen when you step out of that door, right?<em>

_Oh and final warning._

_Look out for the Angels._

_- SF_

Susan slumped on the chair behind her, feeling like she was going to choke. Aside from the fact that she had created a self-fulfilling prophecy, the last bit really creeped her out. Her thoughts were already going haywire. Did this note mean that she was going to be attacked by the Angels? Or was she just going to see them, and escape? It was possible, right? Right?

Oh, who was she kidding! She knew perfectly well that if she was going to face the Angels, they were either going to snap her neck or send her back in time. Susan really didn't enjoy the idea of being stuck in 18th century or something. Oh, dear lord.

'_Stop panicking you dolt,_' the voice snarled. '_You wrote that letter to yourself, and got it delivered __here. It think you would have mentioned if you had died of old age yet, so stop fussing about it. And besides, you know that you're going to meet the Master at some point. So that basically means that you're also going to meet the Doctor, because otherwise you wouldn't be posing as the Master's stepsister._'

Susan took a deep breath. '_You're right_,' she thought and rubbed her eyes. '_Sorry._'

'_It's okay,_' the voice grumbled. '_Not everyone has as clear grasp on things as I do._'

Susan scowled at that. '_What the hell does that mean?_' she asked. '_Who are you anyway, if you have the 'perfect' way of thinking and you always know everything?_'

The voice was silent for a while, and Susan almost thought she had scared it off, until it finally spoke again.

'_It's simple,_' the voice started.

Susan's eyes widened. She was finally going to get a clear answer!

'_You will know when the time is right._'

Susan rolled her eyes. '_Fuck you,_' she thought. '_You're just so annoying, always mocking me and thinking that I'm stupid. You're the one that should be kept in dark, you're just a voice in my head!_'

'_When the time is right_,' the voice repeated, sounding amused. '_You'll understand._'

"Yadda yadda yadda," Susan said out loud and poked out her tongue, until she realized that she was speaking to no one. Coughing loudly and thanking god that nobody was around to see it, she picked up the things from the desk, and put the screwdriver, the psychic paper, the note and the campaign poster inside the shoulder bag.

The shop door opened with a bright tinkling sound. "You alright here?" Arthur asked, coming from his lunch break form the cafe across the street. "You look awfully pale," he said, eyeing her in concern.

"Yeah," Susan said and grinned wearily. "I think I might be coming down with something. Feel a bit tired."

Arthur nodded. "Well in that case, why don't you take the rest of the day off?"

Susan glanced at the clock in the wall. It was almost three pm. She turned to look at Arthur with a skeptical expression. "You absolutely sure?"

"Yes, yes," he said and raised his eyebrows. "I've managed this shop on my own for years, what makes you think I couldn't do it today?"

Susan grinned. "Thanks!" she said and dashed through the doorway towards her room. She practically jumped up the stairs, went to her wardrobe and stuffed every piece of clothing she owned into her new shoulder bag. Then she took her ID, passport and other things from her old bag and finally grabbed her new coat. She dashed back to downstairs with the same hurry, said a quick goodbye to Arthur, and was out of the door.

She started walking towards the bus stop and took her phone out, dialing a number and then waiting for a while.

"Hey, Ianto, I thought I'd stop by today. How are things going?"

There was a strained laugh from the other side of the line. "Fine," he said dryly. "We just stopped the Abaddon from killing everyone on the planet, and now Jack's dead."

Susan's eyes widened and she almost dropped the phone. "What?" she asked, her eyebrows almost touching her hairline. "That happened already? I thought I would have noticed people dying and the black plague coming back."

Ianto sighed. "It's complicated," he said. "As the rift closed up, those things practically never happened, so you wouldn't remember them."

Susan gave a sigh. "Great," she huffed. "Should have called you earlier, I so wanted to see that happening."

Ianto didn't sound very happy. "There was nothing cool about it," he said stiffly. "Because of that, Jack is dead."

"Oh," Susan said. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking... Sorry," she repeated and pouted. "When did it happen? You should have called me."

"Just a little over two days ago," Ianto said, sounding tired. "He's not waking up, even though Gwen still seems to believe so."

Susan made a though full sound. If she remembered right, Jack would be waking up any minute now. "Umm," she said and eyed the buss schedule on the street pole. "Ianto, I think it would be best to talk about this face to face. Mind if I pop in for a visit in about twenty minutes time?"

"I guess it's okay," Ianto said.

"Great," Susan said and smiled. "See you there."

* * *

><p>The buss came by five minutes later, and in twenty minutes she had already reached the bus stop nearest to Cardiff bay. She happily walked across the Roald Dahl Plass, and went inside through the tourist office.<p>

Ianto was waiting for her behind the desk. "Hi again," he said, trying to smile.

Susan eyed him for a moment and took her jacket off. "You look terrible," she said and grimaced at her own comment. "Sorry."

Ianto just shrugged. "It's okay," he said and led her through the secret passage. They walked to the lift in silence, which lasted until they reached the destination and entered the Hub through the cog wheel door.

Toshiko, who just entered the main room, noticed them first. "Oh, hello Susan," she said and smiled the same strained smile Ianto had used. "How have you been?"

Susan scoffed at her. "Don't ask me that," she said and and her expression slowly melted into a concerned one. "How have you guys been doing? Are you okay?"

Toshiko's smile faded. "Not very good," she said and glanced at Ianto. "I just came from the morgue, Gwen is still waiting for him and believing, but there haven't been any sign of him waking up."

Susan's eyebrows rose. That was a bit convenient. Jack was going to wake up in three minutes or so. She glanced at her watch. "Well," Susan started and looked at Toshiko. "He might just surprise you."

That's when they heard the sound of footsteps from the direction of the morgue. Pale-looking Jack and Gwen came up the stairs, hand in hand. Susan grinned at the sight, while Toshiko and Ianto just stared at them.

Toshiko was first to run up to him and get a hug. Then Ianto went, and they kissed. Susan had to stop herself from making an aww sound.

Owen came from somewhere carrying a tool kit, and almost dropped it when he saw Jack. They hugged too, and after Owen and Jack had had their moment, Jack noticed Susan and walked towards her.

"Susan," Jack said, nodding at her.

Susan raised her eyebrows. "What?" she asked, grinning. "No hugs or kisses for me?"

Jack smiled and engulfed Susan in a bear hug.

"You look pale," Susan said after Jack let her go. "I guess you haven't been eating your vegetables?"

Jack just raised his eyebrow in amusement.

"You know," Susan continued, her grin widening even more. "An apple a day keeps the Doctor away."

Jack laughed. "Then I better keep myself away from apples."

Susan glanced at the rest of the team, who were all trying not to listen to their conversation. She hesitated for a moment. "Jack..." she started, seriously.

Jack noticed her glance. "Yeah?" he asked and they started walking towards his office for some privacy.

Susan bit her lip. "I just wanted to say thank you."

Jack looked at her. "For what?"

"You know, for helping me out in here, giving me money to buy the basic things I need," Susan said. "I wouldn't even have any ID's without you guys."

Jack smiled. "It's the least we could have done," he said. "It's our job."

"I know," Susan said as they reached his office. "But still... And, I'd like to say one more thing."

Jack sat behind his desk. "Hmm?"

Susan couldn't stop the smirk from forming. "I won't be seeing you in a while," she said quoting the sixth season, winked and started backing towards the doorway. "But, you'll be seeing me."

She had time to see Jack's amused expression before she sauntered back towards the cog wheel door. Feeling like her work there was done, she said goodbyes to Ianto, Tosh and Owen, and stepped inside the lift, putting her coat back on.

Back the ground floor, Susan looked down to adjust her shoulder bag. Then she looked back up, ready to start walking towards the secret door, but stopped as she noticed something standing in front of her.

The lightning on the corridor was bad, but she could clearly make out the silhouette of an angel statue.

'_Shit_', Susan thought, her eyes widening. And then...

She blinked.


	9. You've got to be kidding me

**A/N: **I'm so excited about this. The next chapters are going to be soooo funny to write. Please remember to review, I love your comments!

**Warnings: **This will be somewhat AU. Also, spoilers for Doctor Who seasons 1-6.

**Disclaimer:** Doctor Who and Torchwood belong to BBC. I only own the characters you don't recognize.

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><p><strong>BOOK TWO<strong>

"_People don't understand time. It's not what you think it is._"  
>- "<em>Then what is it?<em> "  
>"<em>Complicated.<em> "  
>- "<em>Tell me.<em> "  
>"<em>Very complicated.<em>"

**Chapter 1: You've got to be kidding me**  
>The first thing Susan saw was something brown and green coming towards her, very fast. She hit the ground with a faint thud and groaned at the impact. <em>Not very nice landing with this time travel office, they definitely have things to improve<em>, she thought darkly as her stomach rolled and twisted and her vision spun.

The nausea was over in a few seconds, and Susan rolled over to look at the sky. It still looked like an ordinary sky. No sun was visible, but the clouds looked very normal. She guessed she was at least still back in Earth. Not that she had, of course, expected anything else.

Susan stood up slowly and brushed the dirt away from her clothes, at the same time subtly looking around. She didn't see any medieval knights or anything that could suggest witch hunts or something as dangerous. In fact, she seemed to be standing on a normal looking country road with a few bushes and trees surrounding the place. Few miles further Susan could see large fields, and as she turned around, some buildings. There seemed to be a little village of some kind ahead. So far nothing pointed out that she even had gone back in time in the first place, but Susan knew better. So she sighed and started walking towards the village.

After arriving at the village was glad she had decided to buy her vintage coat. People around her were definitely from the older times, and if she guessed correctly, it was probably the beginning of the 20th century.

Susan walked around like she knew what she was doing, after all, it had been one of the Doctor's tips about time traveling. Always walk around like you own the place, and no one will question you. She looked at shop windows and subtly eavesdropped some conversations among the villagers, and was glad to notice that people were speaking English. That meant she hadn't landed in Germany or anyplace else. Not that there was nothing wrong with Germany. She just didn't speak the language.

Susan spotted a newspaper stand and headed towards it. The first newspaper she saw was of course The Times. She rolled her eyes and her eyes immediately went up to check the date.

**November 9th 1913**

Susan blinked and stared at the date for a while. Her mind had drawn completely blank about the significance of the particular year, until after a while her eyes widened and her mouth dropped.

Then she started counting back in her head, and her mouth dropped open even more. This was the month that Doctor was spending as a human in the episode Human Nature.

Susan shook her head. The only thing that was missing from this ridiculously convenient event was that she wasn't anywhere near the Doctor right now, because as far as she could tell, she was still somewhere in Wales.

"Now anything more I can help you with miss Redfern?" Susan heard a shopkeeper as next to her.

"No, thank you, this is all I need," a vaguely familiar voice answered. "I better get going back to the school or they will start looking for me."

Susan was frozen in place for a second. Could it really be this easy for her? She wasn't about to look the gift horse in the mouth, so when she finally could move, Susan quickly spun around to look at the person who was speaking.

Nurse Joan Redfern was standing in front of her, speaking to a shopkeeper. Or at least, she had been talking to a shopkeeper until she heard Susan turning, quite noisily, to look at her. The woman raised an eyebrow at Susan's amazed expression.

"Anything I can help you with?" Nurse Redfern asked, taking Susan's appearance in with a quick glance.

"Ummm," Susan stuttered, opening and closing her mouth before finally closing it quickly and swallowing. She was going to have to come up with something intelligent. "I just happened to overhear you talking about a school," she said quickly and scratched her cheek awkwardly. "You wouldn't be talking about the Farringham School for Boys, now would you?"

Nurse Redfern nodded curtly. "As a matter of fact, yes," she said. "Why do you ask?"

Susan made her best pleading expression. "It's just, I'm looking for that particular school because I'm here to meet someone in there," she said, her mind quickly coming up with a lie that wouldn't make her visit seem too suspicious.

"A relative in fact. I would be very glad if someone could escort me there, since I don't know the way."

Redfern eyed her for a while. "I suppose I can help you since my dealings here are done," she said, and for the first time Susan noticed that Nurse Redfern was carrying a basket on her hands.

The woman placed it on her left hand, while the other one gestured for Susan to move forwards.

"Follow me."

"Thanks!" Susan said happily before realizing how stupid the word sounded in the 20th century. "I mean, thank you. I'd be most grateful."

Nurse Redfern looked at her oddly. "You're very welcome."

They walked in silence for about ten minutes, while Susan was having an argument with her inner voice.

'_And what are you going to say? The Doctor can't help you, you know, since he still thinks he's a human right now,_' the voice said.

_I'll just have to come up with something..._ Susan thought. _I mean, his memory is a bit fuzzy isn't it? I could just come up with a story that I'm his distant relative or something and he'd totally buy it._

The voice sighed. '_Yes, but what about Martha Jones?_' it argued.

Susan thought about it for a while. _Well, she's basically his servant right now. She doesn't really have any right to argue with him, right? And besides, what if I come up with a story that couldn't be proven and I'd be a relative that he's never heard of?  
><em>  
>'<em>If he's never heard of you, why would he let you stay at the school?<em>' the voice asked, clearly amused.

Susan rolled her eyes. _Well of course I'd be a close relative. Like a... half-sister or something. Then he'd have to let me stay, right? These times are so strict that they would never leave a lady out in the cold on her own,_ Susan thought, inwardly smirking.

The voice chuckled. '_We'll see.'  
><em>  
>"We're here," Nurse Redfern said and startled Susan out of her thoughts. She looked around and saw that she had absentmindedly followed the woman right to the school yard. There were no student's loitering around the building, so they all must have been at class or something. The pair walked across the yard and stopped before a great wooden door.<p>

"Now, who are you meeting here, miss...?" Redfern asked suddenly.

Susan realized she hadn't even introduced herself and smiled awkwardly. "Sorry," she said, "I'm Susan Friberg. Pleasure to meet you."

The woman nodded slightly. "I am Joan Redfern, the school nurse. You may call me Nurse Redfern."

Susan also nodded. "And to answer your question, I'm here to meet Mr. Smith," she said nonchalantly and noticed Redfern's surprised expression. She almost smirked at her. "You wouldn't know him, now would you?"

"I happen to know him, yes," Nurse Redfern answered. "Please come in and I'll fetch him for you."

They stepped inside the old building and Susan almost stopped to look at all the beautiful details around the room, but remained silent and walked carefully behind Nurse Redfern.

That's when a woman came from a doorway and noticed them. "Good afternoon, miss Redfern," a very familiar voice said, making Susan look at the person more carefully. Her eyes widened as she realized who was talking to them. It was Martha Jones in a maid's outfit.

"Ah, good morning... Miss Jones, was it?" Redfern questioned with a barely even glancing at Martha. "Now, we have a guest. Will you please stay here with Miss Friberg while I fetch for Mr. Smith?" she asked.

Martha Jones looked at Susan, only now seeming to notice her. "Of course," she said as pleasantly as she could, before realizing what Nurse Redfern had just said and looking back at her with a confused expression. "Wait, what do you need Mr. Smith for?"

Redfern raised her eyebrow again. "Miss Friberg is a relative of him, that's all you need to know," she said strictly. Then she walked up the stairs and was gone.

Susan was left staring at suspicious Martha Jones, who was eyeing her in a very visible way. "Hello," Susan said and swallowed, trying not to stare too much. "Susan Friberg," she said. "And you are?"

"Martha Jones, miss," Martha said while eyeing Susan suspiciously. "Mr. Smith's personal maid, been serving him for ages, miss," she said in a strange way. "I have never seen you before. What relation are you to Mr. Smith?"

Susan swallowed again, and tried to grin. "Well, I'm quite close but we've never actually met before. The age difference, you know," she laughed awkwardly.

"Right, miss..." Martha said, clearly not believing her. Susan felt like hitting her head on the wall. Of course Martha would be suspicious immediately, since she knew that 'John Smith' had no relatives.

She was saved from further questionings when they heard footsteps on the stairs. David Tennant walked down the stairs and towards her, with a strange expression on his face. No, Susan thought, it wasn't David Tennant. She'd really have to stop thinking of him as David Tennant even thought it was hard. It had been a while since she had seen that face and thought of the Doctor only, after all, Matt Smith had been the 11th Doctor for over two years now.

"Nurse Redfern has told me you are here to meet me," he said and eyed her curiously. "John Smith," he said, offering a hand.

Susan looked at his hand for a while, really hoping that her face wasn't making any strange expressions at the time, before realizing what he was doing. "Susan Friberg," she said and offered her hand.

But to her astonishment and slight embarrassment, instead of shaking her hand, John Smith brought it up and placed a faint kiss over her knuckles. Susan was sure her face was crimson and her heart might have just stopped beating.

"Now, how can I help you?" John asked with a slight smile, clearly noticing her embarrassment but deciding not to comment on it.

Susan waved her hand to clear the air around her, suddenly the air had turned hotter.

"Didn't Nurse Redfern tell you why I am here?" Susan asked after a moment of breathing, raising an eyebrow.

John Smith shook his head. "She only told you were here to meet me," he answered.

Susan sighed. "Well, this is going to be a long story... I think we might better sit down," she suggested.

John looked at her for a moment before realizing what she meant.

"Oh! Of course," he said and turned to Martha, who was gaping at John and Susan. "Martha, bring us tea to my office."

"Yes, sir," Martha muttered and went to the kitchen.

"Let me escort you up to my office, miss Friberg, and we'll discuss this over tea," John said pleasantly and gestured towards the stairs. "After you."

Susan sighed in relief. "Tea sounds wonderful."

* * *

><p>"Thank you," Susan said as Martha poured some tea on her cup. She looked up to see John Smith mixing his cup of tea with a spoon. Sighing deeply at the sight she took the psychic paper out of her shoulder bag, grateful that while Martha had been making tea, she had the opportunity to think about her story.<p>

"As I said, I'm Susan Friberg," she said and showed him the paper. "This is my passport."

John Smith read it with a quick glance. He raised his eyebrows and looked back at Susan. "You're all the way from Russia?" he asked incredulously.

Susan blinked at him before realizing that Finland was still part of Russia. Damn.

"Yes, yes," she grumbled. "I've lived there for all of my life until moving here about a month ago after my mum died last year."

"I'm sorry," John said solemnly.

Susan nodded. "Anyway, I'm here because apparently we have the same dad," she started carefully.

John Smith's eyes widened and his mouth opened to form a silent O. "What do you mean?" he asked after a while eyeing Susan with a new light in his eyes. "I've never heard of my dad having any other children."

Susan shook her head. "Well, as I said, it's a long story. After your mom died 20 years ago, your father met my mom who was at the time living here in England. They fell in love and got engaged, but just when they were starting to plan their weddings, my grandfather died and my mum had to go back to Russian, as she was his only child and she had to take care of the property and financial business," she told with a faraway look in her eyes.

"So they split up. After a year, my mum had me. They still kept in contact and dad was kind enough to financially support my mom... Apparently he never told you about me. I think it might have been the fact that I was his child outside of marriage, and the fact that since my mom never married him, he didn't see the point of telling you, as you never had even met her."

John blinked. "That's..." he trailed off. "Very unfortunate."

Susan nodded grimly. "Yeah, well and five years ago when your dad died, my mum kind of got depressed and then she finally got sick about a year ago and died. She of course had told me all about my dad and you, so when I got the chance, I sold the house to my cousin and took all the things I needed with me to come here to meet you."

John leaned back in his chair and was silent for a minute.

"You didn't have any other luggage with you beside that bag," he said. "Where's the rest of your things?"

Susan scratched her neck awkwardly. "Well, I was staying at an inn on my way here, and this morning when I was leaving, the driver took off without me with all of my things inside his car and this is the only piece of luggage that was left."

Even Martha seemed to sympathize with her after that. "That's terrible!" she said.

John glanced at her, "Yes, well thank you Martha. I think you could go now."

Martha almost glared at him but stopped herself in time.

"Yes, of course Mr. Smith," she said and took the tray with her. "I'll leave you to it."

Susan watched her leave. "So she's Martha Jones?" she asked and turned back to John. "I heard she's been with your family since she was a child. Your dad mentioned her on his letters."

The time-lord-changed-into-human nodded. "Yes, she's been a very good servant. I almost think of her as my friend," he said and noticed Susan raising her eyebrows. "I mean, we're very close." He scratched his head, "No, well, you know what I mean, don't you?"

Susan had to keep herself from laughing. "Yes, I do know what you mean," she giggled. John smiled at her. After a while their expressions changed into more serious ones.

"I was hoping to stay here for some time to get to know you, John," Susan said carefully. "I can call you John, right?

John Smith grinned. "I think it's appropriate at this situation, Susan," he said. "After all, we are what you could call, siblings."

Susan smiled and her cheeks burned with the idea. She was posing as the Doctor's half-sister... How cool was that?

"Yes, indeed we are."

"Martha!" John yelled after a second.

Martha opened the door quickly and peeked inside. "Yes, Mr. Smith?"

"Is there any rooms available for our guest?" he asked and looked at Susan. "You will stay at the school, of course? I hardly think it would be appropriate for us to make you find an inn when you could stay here. After all, your luggage was stolen just today."

Susan nodded. "I would be glad to stay here if you have any room."

Martha looked a bit dubious and looked at John. "I don't think there's any rooms empty right now, sorry," she said and then glanced at Susan. "Well, unless..."

"Unless?" John asked a bit annoyed.

"Well, there's empty bed at the maids quarters, sir," Martha said. "But I doubt miss Friberg would be willing to stay there."

John glanced at Susan. She bit her lip. Apparently Martha wanted to keep an eye on her. Well, she didn't really mind, since she understood her concerns. She would definitely do the same thing in her place.

"I don't mind, really," she said, noticing the displeased expression on John Smith's face. "I'm only as a guest here, I don't require any special treatment," she said, smiled and turned to Martha. "I'd be happy to have you as my roommate, I've heard so much about you."

Martha narrowed her eyes slightly and Susan sighed. Things were going to be a bit tricky from now on.


	10. I've got a plan, kinda

**A/N:** I seem to have made a typo on the previous chapter. The date Susan arrived in the past was not 11th of November, but, 9th of November. I've corrected it now, but decided to announce it here just in case nobody is re-reading the last chapter.

Asdhf. I loved writing this chapter so much, that I in fact spent my literature and biology classes this week just writing this down (the teachers didn't even notice!).

I'm sending my love to everyone who reads & reviews! I really want to know your opinions about this one, because it's probably one of the most important chapters so far.

**Warnings:** This will be somewhat AU. Also, spoilers for Doctor Who seasons 1-6.

**Disclaimer:** Doctor Who and Torchwood belong to BBC. I only own the characters you don't recognize.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2: I've got a plan. Kind of.<strong>

Susan followed Martha towards the maids' quarters. John Smith had excused himself earlier, saying that he needed to find the headmaster to inform him about Susan, and also ordered Martha to find Susan a decent kind of gown to wear for dinner. The two 21st century women had just silently obliged, neither of them wanting to say anything that would get John Smith cross.

Susan observed her surroundings as they walked. Everything was so strict and undecorated around the school, and only John's personal quarters had seemed to be, well, more personal. Susan shook her head at the stupid line of thought and entered their room through a wooden door. Everything was also wooden around here.

She glanced around the room, which was also hardly decorated at all, and looked very plain. Susan would have made a disapproving sound, if the sight of Martha silently glaring at her hadn't made her stop.

Right, she thought. Martha was still probably trying to figure out who the hell was she, and if she was one of the Family since she seemed to trying to be friendly with the Doctor. Susan let out a deep sigh and turned back towards the door. She grasped the handle and turned her head to look at Martha.

"Can you get this locked?"

Martha narrowed her eyes. "Why would we need to?" she asked.

Susan rolled her eyes and crossed her arms defensively. "Because I'm about to start a conversation with you that nobody on this century should walk in."

Martha's eyes widened at that but she still refused to budge from her place. "I don't know what you mean."

Susan sighed and then smiled slightly. "Don't you see anything wrong with this outfit?" she asked, waving down at her clothes. The coat was a good cover up, she knew, but there was still something kind of obvious about her outfit.

Martha eyed her clothes for a minute. "Well," she muttered, "Not really."

Susan shook her head. "You see but you don't observe," she said, and then pointedly looked down at her own shoes. Martha's gaze followed to find a pair of red converse shoes on her feet.

"Oh," Martha said.

Susan grinned. "Yes, '_oh_'," she giggled. "I'd bet they're not yet making these kind of shoes," she said. "Not for the public anyway, and they're certainly not selling them in Finland."

Martha's lips quirked to a small smile. "You mean Russian?"

Susan glared at her slightly. "Har har," she said. "Very funny."

Martha's expression turned serious again, and she opened her mouth to say something, again looking quite defensive.

"And no, I'm not who you probably think I am," Susan said, cutting her off. "The family is not currently aware of your location."

Martha looked surprised for a moment, before masking it quickly. "How do you know about the family if you're not one of them?" she asked, eyes narrowing.

Susan pursed her lips in thought. "It's really complicated, but I kind of know the things that are going to happen over the few couple of days."

Martha's expression changed from blank to amazed. "How?" she asked. "Have you met the Doctor in the future or something?"

"Or something." Susan shrugged.

Martha stared at her for a while before slumping down on an old chair that made a squeaking noise. "He didn't warn me about anything like this happening," she said, sighing deeply.

Susan frowned at the sight. Poor Martha, she must be so exhausted. No one from the 21st century would like to live back in the days when women's rights were practically unknown. And they had to wear a corset...

Martha glanced back at Susan after a minute of composing herself. "Do you have any proof of your so called '_knowledge_'?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Susan grinned at that and took the psychic paper out of her bag. "I'm the Queen of England," she said, showing the paper to Martha, whose eyes widened at the sight.

"Wha-"

Susan giggled at her expression and put the paper down. "Sorry, I had to," she said and grinned. "Actually, this paper is one of the best fake ID's ever. I'd say you're probably familiar with the paper type."

Martha looked thoughtful at that. "Paper type?" she asked, and then her eyes widened. "Oh! You've got psychic paper too!"

Susan nodded. "Yep," she said and then took out her sonic screwdriver. '_The guide book did say that __this one would work on wood,'_ she thought. "And I've also got this!"

Susan turned around and pointed the screwdriver at the door, pushing the button for an automatic lockdown. It made a familiar whirring sound and then the door clicked shut.

Martha's amazed expression met Susan's gaze as she turned back.

"That's..." Martha muttered. "That's quite amazing."

Susan grinned. "I know."

Martha stared at her for a while, and Susan took the time to remove her coat. Martha immediately noticed her otherwise modern clothes underneath, and frowned.

"We've got to get you some more fitting clothes," Martha said.

"I know, but I don't really have any money or anything, I was only using a credit card before I arrived here," Susan said.

Martha thought about if for a few minutes. "I know the TARDIS has huge closets with clothes of every time period and size..." she said and trailed off suggestively.

Susan's expression brightened immediately. "Ooh!" she said. "Can we go to see the TARDIS? I really, really, really want to see her!"

Martha glanced at her oddly. "Her?"

Susan grinned. "Well, it's obviously a girl," she said.

"Right," Martha muttered and shook her head. "Now would you please be so kind as to open the door so we can get out of here."

* * *

><p>Martha and Susan tried to sneak out, but they bumped into John Smith, who had just been visiting the headmaster.<p>

"Oh, hello again!" he said brightly.

Susan smiled thinly. "Hello," she said, hoping that the man would take her quiet appearance as shyness rather than annoyance.

"Did you find anything fitting?" John asked, his stride matching theirs as he joined the walk down the stairs.

Martha shook her head. "Unfortunately no," she said. "But I'm going to take miss Friberg into town and maybe we'll be a bit more lucky there."

John nodded. "Excellent idea," he praised in his professory manner. "Just remember to be careful and come back in time for dinner."

Now, don't get Susan wrong. She loved the Doctor. She even liked John Smith. But the way John Smith spoke to women was just so typically 20th century man that it irritated the life out of Susan. She gritted her teeth and tried to smile. "Of course," she said pleasantly. "We wouldn't want to miss dinner, now, would we Martha?"

Martha glanced at her curiously. "No, miss," she answered, not yet forgetting her role as the lower class.

They soon went their separate ways and Martha questioned Susan about her behavior.

"What was that all about?" Martha asked, raising her eyebrow at Susan, who just scowled.

"It's just the way he speaks to women," she said. "Don't get me wrong, perfectly kind man, John Smith is, but he seems to think that women are so far below him or something..."

Martha looked amused. "It's just the 20th century mentality," she said. "I understand what you mean, maybe better than anyone."

Susan glanced at her. "What do you mean?"

Martha raised her both eyebrows and pointed at her face. "Hello," she said.

Susan's mouth opened. "Oh, that," she said. "Well I guess you do know a little better," she said looking forwards, happily stealing Jenny's line, grinning. "Being a Londoner."

Martha laughed as expected. "Yes!" she giggled. "Good ol' London town!"

They walked happily for a while before Martha broke the silence.

"So," she asked. "How did you end up here? Do you have your own time machine or something?"

Susan glanced at her. "Well... It was actually an accident."

Martha frowned. "How can time traveling be an accident?" she asked and then grinned. "Apart from the Doctor's driving skills, I mean."

Susan giggled. "I think you could blame the TARDIS for that," she said. After a while her expression darkened.

"There is this alien race called the Weeping Angels," Susan started. "They look like statues when you look at them, and stone can't kill you, right?"

Martha nodded like it was obvious.

Susan smiled grimly. "But turn your back, look away, or blink, and suddenly they're not stone anymore."

Martha looked horrified. "That's amazingly creepy," she said.

"Yeah." Susan nodded. "And that's not all. The Angels are probably the only race in the universe that kills their victims nicely. Usually, with a brief touch, they send the victim in to the past before they're even born, and then consume the victims potential life energy of the life they could have led in their own time."

Martha looked baffled at this, before she realized one particular word Susan had used. "Usually?" she whispered.

Susan smiled brightly. "Well, I was just lucky, mine did exactly that. But they could also just snap your neck and kill you."

Martha stared at Susan. "I never want to meet those things," she said, shuddering.

_'Just you wish._'

"We're here," Martha said and opened the door of the wooden shack. Susan stopped dead in her tracks to take a deep breath before stepping inside while Martha held the door open for her. The sight greeting them was breathtaking, and Susan felt her eyes watering.

It was really the TARDIS. She was actually seeing the TARDIS.

"She's beautiful," Susan choked out, touching the front doors gently.

Martha giggled at her. "You've never seen the TARDIS before then?" she asked.

Susan glanced at her briefly. "Oh, I've seen her," she said and turned back. "Just not this close."

The TARDIS made a humming sound and suddenly Susan had an idea.

"I think I've got a perfect way for me to prove that my intentions are good."

Martha looked at her questioningly. "Oh?"

Susan patted the door with her right hand and grinned. "This is locked, right?" she asked.

Martha nodded, but after noticing that Susan wasn't looking back at her, she said: "Yes, I've got strict instructions to lock the doors every time I visit."

Susan stroked the side of the TARDIS gently again. "Would you please let me in?" she whispered. "I promise I'll try to help Martha and the Doctor in the best way I can if you let me in," she continued. And she'd promise to try and stop the Master from harming her in the future, Susan silently added.

The TARDIS hummed once and then was quiet again.

"What are you trying?" Martha asked, amused.

"Sshhh!" Susan hissed and waited patiently.

Finally after a while, the door clicked open.

"YES!" Susan laughed and kissed the front doors. "I knew I could trust you, you sexy thing!"

Martha was amazed. "How did you do that?" she asked incredulously. "Are you a time lord or something? I've never seen even the Doctor do that."

Susan glanced back at her, her hand positioned on the doorknob, eyebrows raised.

"God, no," she said, and grinned. "The TARDIS is just highly telepathic. She also can sort of see into the future and the past, so she can be pretty sure of people's intentions."

"Amazing," Martha breathed out. "The Doctor never mentioned that."

Susan hid a smirk, "Well, he has always kind of underestimated her."

Then took a deep breath and opened the doors. The sight was fairly glum, since most of the power had been shut for the time the Doctor was human and the TARDIS was practically hibernating. Susan still liked it, thought. The 11th Doctor's TARDIS decorations might have been prettier, but this one had always been her first TARDIS console room and it had a special place in Susan's heart.

Susan grinned widely and danced her way towards the controls.

"Oh, you poor sexy thing," she said, tutting. "Must be so lonely here all by yourself."

The TARDIS hummed quietly in response.

Martha was still looking amazed and quite baffled. "It's like she's answering you!"

Susan glanced back at Martha, amused at how quickly she had started speaking about the TARDIS like she was a person. And to be honest, she pretty much was. After all, all of the TARDIS are grown, not built.

"She is," Susan said quietly. "We just really can't understand her responses. I think the time lords can, but I'm not exactly sure if the Doctor knows how..."

Martha was finally getting over her amazement and walked next to her. "How do you know these things?" she asked.

Susan looked up at her. "Can't really tell you yet," she said. "But I promise I'll explain everything to you and the Doctor when we get him back."

Martha sighed. "About that," she started. "It might take a while. We've still got a few weeks left before he can turn back safely."

Susan nodded, expecting the answer. "But..." she trailed off hesitantly. Oh, shit. She really wanted to tell Martha what was going to happen, so that they could stop all of those people form dying and the Nurse Redfern from falling in love with John Smith, who technically, didn't even exist.

Martha looked at her. "But?" she questioned. "Do you know something, because if you do, I really wish you'd tell me. I need all the help I can get."

Susan let out a deep sigh. "I wish the Doctor was here. He'd know what would be the best thing to do, no doubt about it," she said glumly.

Martha shook her head. "That's exactly the problem," she said. "If the Doctor was here we wouldn't be in this situation."

Susan thought about it for a while, and the words said by the Son of Mine came to her mind.

"Do you know why the Doctor chose to change into a human?"

Martha frowned. "Because they would have never stopped chasing us otherwise?"

Susan shook her head. "No," she said. "It's because he was being kind. He gave them a chance to die peacefully by running out of their own life energy."

Martha blinked. "Kind?"

Susan nodded grimly. This part of the episode had always kind of creeped her out. "Never underestimate the fury of a time lord, Martha," she said. "You see him as the kind person he is to all of his friends and allies... But when those friends and allies are in danger, he's like..."

Susan paused.

"Like?" Martha whispered, her eyes wide.

Susan shuddered. "Like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night, and the storm at the heart of the sun. He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe." And he's wonderful. Oh, he is. But he's really really scary when he's angry, Susan thought.

"I really don't enjoy making this kind of choices, Martha," Susan said after a brief silence, shaking her head. "But I think we need to wake up the Doctor a bit sooner than we thought."

* * *

><p>John Smith walked back to his room after an afternoon class of history. He was still happy about the unexpected visit of his before unknown relative. He had always wanted siblings since he was a little boy, and because had been feeling quite lonely lately, he was pleasantly surprised to find out that he had a sister. A half-sister, but still a sister.<p>

He only wished he could figure out the odd dreams he had been having lately.

"Susan, Miss Jones," John greeted, surprised upon entering his room. "You're back already."

"Yes," Susan said slowly. Martha stayed quiet.

John eyed Susan's outfit and frowned. "I notice you're still wearing those travel clothes. Didn't you find any fitting gowns from any of the shops in town?"

Susan had been standing next to the fireplace and fidgeting with an old fob watch on her hand that had earlier been positioned on the mantelpiece.

"Is something wrong?" John asked, suddenly feeling the tense atmosphere in the room.

Susan smiled thinly. It was an odd smile, John thought.

"Nothing really," she said, looking down at the old fob watch. "Is this yours?"

John blinked at the odd question. "Yes, but it's never worked."

Susan glanced back at him. "How do you know it's not working if you haven't opened it?"

John blinked again, this time in surprise. "How did you guess I've never opened it?" he asked, suddenly a bit more interested in the plain looking watch. He had never really thought about the watch at all. It had just... been there.

Susan smiled again, but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "Martha told me."

John glanced at Martha, starting to feel annoyed at all the questions and cryptic answers. "What is this about?"

Susan sighed, shaking her head sadly. "I'm sorry, John, I'm really sorry. But this is for the best."

"What on earth are you talking about?" John asked.

Susan walked up to stand in front of him. She swallowed, closed her eyes and opened the watch.

The light was blinding, even though her eyes were closed, and she still saw the bright golden light behind her eyelids. The noise was amazing, something between very strong wind and a choir singing.

After the noise and light stopped, Susan waited for a while, not yet opening her eyes. She wanted to look, but was afraid to. This probably wasn't a way to get into the Doctor's good books.

"Who the hell are you?" a familiar voice, this time with a twinge of Doctorish disbelief, asked.

Susan slowly peered open her left eye, only to shut both of them tighter at the sight of the angry Doctor. She dropped the watch on the floor with a thud and covered her face with her hands.

"I'm sorry!" she squeaked. "I'm just trying to help and I'm sorry I don't know if we'll all die now and I'm sorry," she started rambling at very fast pace.

"Martha, who is she?" an amused sounding Doctor asked.

"She's apparently from the future and she told me she knew what was going to happen. That's why we opened the watch."

The room was silent for a while.

"Open your eyes," the Doctor said.

Susan thought about it for a while. He didn't sound really angry, so she peeked at him through her fingers. His expression was slightly curious but not really frightening at all. But she squeaked anyway.

"Am I really that frightening?" the Doctor asked Martha, probably half joking, half serious.

Martha sounded confused. "I don't know," she said. "Susan was acting just fine before, while you were still John Smith."

Susan slowly peeked at them again. "Yes," she muttered to answer the Doctor's question, and he turned his gaze back to her. "Well. No, I don't know," she said, throwing her hands up in the air, before hastily bringing them back to her chest for psychological defense.

"It's just, well, you're the Doctor!"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "I thought you already knew that," he said and glanced down at the now empty fob watch. "Since it was you who let me out of that in the first place."

Susan swallowed. "Yes, sorry, I'll explain that just in a minute," she muttered quickly. "But let me just freak out for a second like the fangirl I am, okay?" she asked with a straight face before squealing loudly.

The Doctor groaned. "Oh no, not a fan girl."

Martha blinked. "You have fan girls?"

The Doctor nodded grimly. "Yes, people who have seen me do things or people who have just heard me through the internet or so," he said and glanced at Susan's shoes. "Form the fantastic choice of footwear (Susan giggled) I'd say you're from the brand age of internet, the 21st century, right?"

Susan finally managed to calm down a little. "Yes," she said, a bit out of breath. "But that's not all. I'm also from a parallel universe."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "But you can't be!"

It took for a while for Susan to understand what he meant. Her eyes widened.

"Oh, sorry, I see how misleading that might have sounded to you," she said and scratched her head. "I'm not form THAT parallel universe. And even thought the ways might be shut right now, I was kind of brought into this one by an accident."

Martha shook her head. "You seem to be very accident prone."

The Doctor glanced at her. "What do you mean by that?" he asked and glanced at Susan. "And what do you mean by accident?"

Susan let out a breath. "Uh," she mumbled. "Martha was probably making a reference to the fact that the way I traveled to this year, 1913, was an accident too, albeit a very different one than the parallel world one."

The Doctor's eyes glinted with curiosity. "Explain."

Susan nodded. "To make it short, I came through the Cardiff rift and ended up in this world. Then I bumped into a certain being called a Weeping Angel."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "But those are just legends!" he said. "There isn't supposed to be any of them left!"

Susan shook her head. "Well, as you know," she said, looking pointedly at the Doctor, "The legends are often wrong."

The Doctor sighed. Why did he have a very bad feeling about this?


	11. Important questions

**A/N:** I know it's a bit unusual for me to update this soon, but I just love writing this story.

Thanks for all of you who reviewed the last chapter, I hope you'll all continue to do so in the future too! As I've said, I really love reviews and they give always brighten up my day. It also gives me reason to keep going, since I know there are people who really want to read more of this story.

**Warnings:** Some strong language in this chapter. Mentions of _slash_ (men/men relationships), spoilers for _Doctor Who_ seasons 1-6 (new series) and _Torchwood_ seasons 1-4.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Torchwood_ or _Doctor Who_.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3: Important questions<strong>

"Anyhow, to put this simply, there's no such things as aliens in my universe."

The Doctor's eyebrows rose up higher that Susan had ever seen before. "Impossible," he said, in a tone that held no argument. "There's always other alien races than the humans in the universe."

Susan shook her head. "No, actually I'm pretty sure there isn't any in my universe, since the first thing we were taught in astronomy class was: 'There has been no known sign of any intelligent life or life of any other kind on the other planets we know of'," she recited with quotation marks. "It always annoyed me, as I had been a Whovian for a few years before my first astronomy class."

The Doctor blinked. "A... Whovian?" he asked, hesitating if he even wanted to know.

"Yep," Susan said and grinned. "As in 'Doctor Who fan'."

"Doctor Who?" Martha asked, frowning. "What is that?"

Susan giggled. "Well, it's kind of hard to explain to you two, but basically, Doctor Who is a TV- series about The Doctor," Susan said, looking pointedly at the Doctor, "And his companions."

"You're serious, aren't you?" The Doctor said and stared at her. "There really is a whole TV show about me."

"I'm never Sirius," Susan said, trying to keep a straight face. The Doctor grinned at that. "But yes, there really is. And that's not all, your show has been running in the UK since the 1963 until they canceled it in the 1989. There was a movie in 1996, but it wasn't very successful. However, BBC restarted the series with a whole new look and actors in the 2005, starting with the 9th Doctor's adventures."

The Doctor made a face, clearly remembering that reincarnation and his lack of hair. "And was that successful?"

Susan raised her eyebrow. "What do you think?" she asked sarcastically. "I'm not a exactly 40 years old or anything, nor do I hold a secret passion for the 60's scifi series."

The Doctor muttered something.

"What was that?" Susan asked, eyebrows still raised.

"Nothing," the Doctor answered quickly and coughed. "Very well, this is all very interesting. Are you saying that you knew what was going to happen because you've seen all this happen in an episode of 'Doctor Who'?" He made quotation marks, making Susan laugh at his expression.

"Well, technically yes," she said, but then her expression turned thoughtful. "But obviously I wasn't a character, and now that I've kind of changed things I have no idea what will happen."

The Doctor turned serious at that. "About that, yes," he said and eyed Susan. "What exactly made you open the fob watch?"

Susan scratched her neck nervously under his gaze. "I'm not sure what you were thinking when you used the Chameleon Arch, Doctor," Susan said, her voice squeaking a bit at the last word, as she felt giddy about talking to the Doctor himself. "But I'm pretty certain that you didn't want anything to happen to the people around you."

The Doctor frowned, not really getting what she was trying to say. Susan hastily continued. "It's just, if you were to be kept hidden in the watch for the next two days, some people in here would have died because of that. The family is on their way here, right now."

The Doctor's face darkened. "And they would do what?"

Susan hesitated for a moment. "They are going to take four of the villagers to use their bodies to move around looking for you," she said. "And then they would find John Smith, threaten to kill his friends if he didn't gave the Doctor to them."

Martha gasped. "That's horrible!"

"Would he do it?" Doctor asked, making Susan to look at him. "Would John Smith give the watch to them?"

Susan shook her head. "He wouldn't really have the choice. One of the students took the watch for safekeeping and hid it until it was time. Then he went to John Smith and gave it to him. Nurse Redfern..." Susan paused.

The Doctor looked at her thoughtfully. Susan collected her courage and looked him straight in the eye.

"In the end, Nurse Redfern and Martha talked him into opening the watch, as they both realize that there wouldn't be a world for John Smith to live in if they allowed the Family have a Time Lords life energy. Then you went to the Family's spaceship, pretending to be John Smith and gave them an empty watch, at the same time pushing some buttons to make their ship self-destruct. You ran away as they realized the scam, and they followed," Susan told.

Then she looked back to Martha, not capable of looking at the Doctor anymore. "In the end none of them are killed," Susan said, with almost a whisper. "You're so angry with them... You don't give them that chance."

The room was silent. Martha stared at Susan and Doctor with wide eyes.

"I think I know what you mean," The Doctor said after a while.

Susan looked back at him. He was being completely serious. "Yes, I think you do," she answered. "But what should we do now that you're back before you should?"

The Doctor glanced at her. "Before I should?"

Susan nodded. "Well, yes. I mean, in the TV show you're still John Smith at this point. I've changed the history," she said, and then her eyes widened. "Oh my god, are we going to die now?"

The Doctor looked amused. "What?"

"Is those huge reaper thingys going to eat us now?" she squeaked. "Oh, god, I completely forgot about that, I'm sorry..."

"I don't think so," the Doctor said, still eyeing Susan with an amused expression on his face. "History isn't written in stone, you know that, don't you?"

Susan stared at him. "But it's you! Are you sure this isn't any huge fixed point in time and now I've completely destroyed your future or something and the reapers are going to eat us and oh god."

Martha was just staring at Susan with a blank expression on her face.

"Susan," the Doctor said and grabbed her shoulders. "We're not going to die. This is all fine," he said. "You can't be sure of what is meant to happen to us just because you saw it on TV."

Susan swallowed and stared at him, half aware of the hands on her shoulders. "Are you sure?" she asked. "Because if you die because of this or Martha dies or something happens then it's my fault because I've changed things! And besides, everything else this far has been happening exactly like in the series!"

The Doctor shook his head. "I am absolutely sure we're going to be fine," he said. "It was my choice to change into a human, and now I can see that it was a bad one. I'm thankful you've helped us."

Susan let out a deep breath and closed her eyes. Then she opened them again. "Awh, no, anyone would have done the same," she said, now staring at the hands from the corner of her eyes. "I'm just glad you're not angry with me."

The Doctor raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Angry people are scary," Susan quipped. "I'd rather have people hugging each other than fighting or anything. If I could, I'd like to please everyone." A picture came to her mind and she quickly shook her head. "Well, obviously not anyone, it would be kind of pointless to be nice to people who already hate me or something, well I guess it would make sense, if it would change their minds or..."

She noticed that both Martha and Doctor were staring at her.

"Oh," Susan said. "Sorry, I have a bad habit of rambling about random things."

Martha hid a smile. "I know someone who does the same, too," she said and glanced at the Doctor, who raised his eyebrows.

Susan blinked at the Doctor, who was still holding her shoulders. "Are you going to let me go or are you waiting for a hug or something?" Because she definitely would do that.

He let go like his hands were burning, and Susan pouted. "Rude."

"Sorry," he mumbled and ran his fingers through his hair. Susan eyed the hair with rapt interest. Oh my god, she so wanted to do that with her hand. "I guess we'd better go back to the TARDIS and try to figure out a plan."

Martha blinked. "You don't already have one?"

Susan nodded in agreement, eyeing the Doctor absentmindedly. "You probably do, don't you?"

The Doctor just grinned. "Now, telling you wouldn't be any fun at all, would it?"

* * *

><p>The Doctor wrote a hasty letter to the headmaster, saying that John Smith resigned and left back to his home town with his sister and servant. They left the school and headed back to the TARDIS.<p>

Half an hour later, Timothy Latimer came to see John Smith and found the letter. Just as he was going to leave to give it to the headmaster, he noticed a fob watch on the floor. It was a curious little thing with strange markings on the backside. Feeling like he might need it some day, he pocketed the thing and kept it.

* * *

><p>"Doctor, I only now just remembered!" Martha yelled just as the Doctor had taken the TARDIS key from her and was going to insert it into the lock.<p>

"What is it?" the Doctor asked, looking back at her.

"Earlier today, Susan opened the TARDIS doors without a key!" Martha said excitedly.

The Doctor stopped dead and whirled to face Susan, who was scratching her neck. "What!"

Susan coughed. "Well, she let me in."

The Doctor walked right in front of her. "What?"

"She's highly telepathic, you know."

"What?"

Susan tried to keep a straight face. "You do know that you're saying that often, right?"

"How? I've never..."

Susan sighed. "You're always underestimating her, Doctor. She's a really bright TARDIS," she said, still amused at the Doctor's baffled expression. She decided not to mention the fact that he could open her with a snap of his fingers, since that line belonged to River Song, and she really didn't want to steal it.

"What exactly did you do?" Doctor asked, looking at Susan with rapt interest. "Can you do it again?"

Susan raised an eyebrow. "Well, I only did it because I wanted to convince Martha about my intentions, and since the TARDIS is highly telepathic, I just told her I wanted to help you. There's really no use of doing it again, since you're here and we can just open the doors with a key."

The Doctor stared at her for a while. "That's just amazing," he said. "I've never heard of anything like that happening, ever."

Susan was tempted to poke out her tongue. "Well, maybe she just likes me."

The Doctor shook his head, amused, and opened the doors with the key. They stepped inside, and he immediately ran to the console to turn the power fully on. Then he disappeared to change his clothes.

Three minutes later he returned to the console room with his brown coat and converse shoes. Martha was sitting on the only seat available, but Susan was still standing.

Susan stared at him for a minute before taking out her digital camera. "Do you mind? I really love that outfit."

The Doctor grinned and stopped. Susan took the picture and put the camera back to her shoulder bag, gleefully humming.

The Doctor worked with the controls for a few minutes before he looked back at Susan. "No comments? No 'it's bigger on the inside'?" he asked, finally realizing that he had a new person with him.

Susan grinned. "I was already here, remember?" she giggled. "And besides, the only thing I could say about her is that she's beautiful."

The Doctor nodded, approving. "That she is."

Susan patted the console a few times herself, before her eyes widened and she looked back at the Doctor. "Doctor, there are many kind of alternative universes, right?"

The Doctor glanced at her. "Yes, apparently."

"So there could be like universes where other TV shows or books were real?"

The Doctor thought about if for a moment before nodding. "I think so."

Now it was Susan's time to manhandle the Doctor. She grasped the front of his jacket and shook him gently. "Doctor, this is a question of utmost importance."

The Doctor blinked at her. "What is it?"

Susan stared at him, unblinking. "Is Twilight real?"

The Doctor made a face. "You mean that horrible piece of literature written by that -"

"Yes, yes, that one."

The Doctor didn't miss a beat. "No."

Martha laughed at their expressions, the Doctor looking sour even at the mention of Twilight and Susan looking gleeful as the Doctor put her fears to rest.

Susan finally let him go and coughed. "Sorry, it's just a very frightening image, that kind of world being real:"

Doctor nodded seriously. "I understand."

"What do we do now?" Martha asked and rose from her seat. "If we're not staying here, I really want to change my clothes."

The Doctor looked thoughtful and he glanced at Susan. "You said that they would arrive here tomorrow?"

Susan nodded. "Yes, tomorrow evening, when it's getting dark. They land on a field not too far away from the school."

The Doctor pulled a few levers and danced around the console. Susan heard the engines start purring. "I think we should go there then," he said, not looking at Susan or Martha. "I'll take care of them alone."

Susan bit her lip. "Are you sure?"

"If what you say is true, they don't deserve a chance to chase me," he said. "I'll go to them."

Susan and Martha exchanged glances.

* * *

><p>He guided the girls to the kitchen and told them to stay there until he came back. Martha had just changed her clothes, and was glaring at him the whole time until he left. Susan felt a bit doubtful about the whole thing. But they soon forgot about it as they made tea and started talking.<p>

"So how long have you traveled with him now?" Susan asked and took a bite out of a biscuit. "I know some of the things you've done, but not nearly all of them. And I've actually got no idea how long the time is between every episode."

Martha counted back the days in her head. "I think it's been a little over three months, since we were her for two months," she said. "Gosh, it's really hard to keep count with all the time traveling."

Susan giggled. "I'd imagine so. I'm not even sure how old I am right now. When I left it was summer 2012, and I arrived in February 2008."

Martha whistled. "I see how that would be a bit complicated," she said. "How old are you anyway?"

Susan smiled. "How old do you think I am?" She really loved asking that.

"Hmmm," Martha said, eyeing her carefully. "I'd say you can't be older than 20."

Susan nodded. "Good guess," she said. "I actually turned 19 last month."

Martha raised her eyebrows. "Congratulations," she said.

"Thanks," Susan said and sighed glumly. "I don't really celebrate getting older. You know, after you turn 18 it just means you're getting older and then before you know it, you're married with kids and a husband who doesn't care about science fiction." She grinned suddenly. "Or, in this case, doesn't care about the universe."

Martha laughed. "Yes, I know the feeling," she said. "After experiencing these kind of things with the Doctor, I wonder how anyone would want to part with this."

Susan became somber quickly. "It's no all fun you know," she said pointedly, thinking back to what the Doctor was probably doing right now. "Sometimes people actually die and he has to face the consequences."

Martha stared at her and nodded. "Is that why you decided to help us?"

"Partly, yes," Susan said slowly. "That and because I couldn't just let all those people die. And because Nurse Redfern would have fallen in love with him, with a man she couldn't have."

Martha looked down.

Susan bit her lip. "It's not you, you know," she said. "He really just doesn't care for domestics. His whole race is gone and he knows there's no chance for him to get a family he needs. So he has friends. A lot of friends. And they are his family."

Martha looked up and smiled bitterly. "I'd suppose you would know about that too," she said.

Susan smiled softly. "You would have told John Smith, if I hadn't done this," she said. "You would have said it to him just to get the Doctor back."

Martha's eyes widened. "What happened afterwards?"

Susan sighed and shook her head. "Nothing," she said. "It just got awkward for a while, then you both forgot about it."

"What got awkward?" the Doctor asked from the doorway, making Susan and Martha jump in their seats and turn to look at him. Their eyes widened.

"Nothing," Susan said quickly. "You're done?"

The Doctor nodded. "All taken care of," he said, hands in his pockets.

Susan recognized his expression and bit her lip. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Sooo, what's the plan next?"

Martha smiled at Susan's nonchalant tone and glanced pointedly at the Doctor.

The Doctor pulled his left ear nervously. "Well, I guess, if you wanted to, you could..." The Doctor said and coughed. "You could come and travel with us."

Susan's eyes widened and she rose up form her chair. "What?"

"Well, I could take you back to the year you came from, but that would be a bit dull, wouldn't it?" the Doctor said, rambling. "Not to imply that your life is dull or anything, but well, if you're a fan and I'd imagine you'd like to take a trip or few..."

Susan tacked him into a bear hug. "Thank you! Thank you!"

The Doctor awkwardly patted her back. "You're welcome."


	12. Four things and a lizard

**Warnings:** Some strong language in this chapter. Spoilers for every season of _Doctor Who_ and _Torchwood_ seasons 1-4.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Torchwood_ or _Doctor Who_.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: Four things and a lizard<strong>

"Can I get my own room?" Susan asked the Doctor, who was currently going around the TARDIS console.

"How big are the wardrobes? Can I take anything I need from there? Where's the bathrooms? Is there en-suite bathrooms on the TARDIS? Can I have one?" Her eyes widened. "Ooh, does the hot water last for long or do I have to time my shower sessions? Are the showers soundproof, 'cause I really like singing."

The Doctor slammed down a lever and whirled around to face her. "Enough with the questions!" he yelled and Susan slammed her mouth shut. "Just shut up for a moment."

Martha grinned from the seat few meter away. Those two were more similar than they realized, both talking until they would run out of breath.

"Ah, that's good," the Doctor said at the sudden silence and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He turned back to face the console. "Just go to the corridor on your left and think about getting your own room. The TARDIS will know what you want, and you'll get the bathroom if you really need it."

Susan frowned. "What about the wardrobes? Can I use the stuff in there?" she asked. "'Cause I only have three sets of clothes with me."

The Doctor opened his mouth to answer, but then shut it with a snap and turned around again. "How can you have three sets of clothes?" he asked, eyebrows raised. "You only have that shoulder bag with you."

Susan poked her tongue out. "Ah well," she said and opened the leather bag, stuffing her entire arm inside up to the elbow. "It's dimensionally transcendental."

"What'd that mean?"

"Bigger on the inside," the Doctor answered absently.

"What, like a Mary Poppins' bag?" Martha laughed in disbelief.

The Doctor spared a glance at Martha before putting on his glasses and walking to Susan to take a closer look at her bag. "Hey!" he said and frowned. "I think I've seen that bag somewhere before."

Susan grinned shamelessly. "I figured I must have got if from one of the TARDIS rooms," she said. "I got in the mail few days ago with a letter from my future self, saying I'd need it." She glanced at the Doctor and Martha. "Guess I was right."

The Doctor didn't like that. "You're messing with the timelines," he muttered. "What else have you been hiding?"

Susan shared a glance with Martha, who hid a smile behind her hand. The Doctor glanced at her.

"Does Martha know?" he asked and pouted. "That's not fair, you have to tell me too!"

Susan giggled at his expression and raised her palms up in defense. "Okay, I'll tell you", she said. "Just don't make that face!"

The Doctor pouted again, this time with an adorable frown. "What face?"

Susan hid her eyes behind her hands. "That one!" she laughed. "Don't do that, I can't bear to look at you," she giggled.

"Martha, what is she talking about?"

Martha let out laugh. "Dunno," she said, teasing Susan. "Must be a Finnish thing."

"Very funny," Susan said and finally looked at the Doctor. She made an innocent face. "What were we talking about again?"

"Your secrets!" The Doctor growled in a playful tone. Or at least Susan hoped it was playful. "Tell me."

"Okay, so when I was little I had this pet hamster called Rat, and I accidentally let his cage open once," she said with a completely straight face. "He escaped and bit our TV cables. I blamed it on our cat."

"No, no," the Doctor sighed and threw a desperate look at Martha, who was outright laughing at them. "I don't want to hear all of your secrets, just tell me what else you've got hidden in that bag of yours."

"Oooh!" Susan said dramatically. "Why didn't you say so in the first place?"

"Stop it," the Doctor said, trying not to grin. Martha was still laughing at them. "It's not funny."

Susan shook her head and took a deep breath. "Well, okay, I'll tell you", she said. "First, you might want to think back to the moment I met you when you were still John Smith. I showed you my passport, right?"

The Doctor thought about it for a moment. "Yes," he said absently before his eyes widened. "If you were transported there by the Angels, which is a ridiculous claim itself... How did you get a passport with the right dates for the 19th century?"

Susan grinned at him. "I didn't."

"Didn't what?"

"Get one. Have one," she said. "It wasn't a real passport, it just looked like one 'cause I said so."

The Doctor crossed his arms and grumbled. "Psychic paper," he muttered.

"Yep. Got that with the bag."

"Hnnh," the Doctor made a non-committed sound. "Anything else?"

Susan looked at Martha, who nodded encouragingly. "Well, I've got this one thing, but I'm not really supposed to show it to you", she said, looking dubiously at the Doctor. "It's almost like... a spoiler."

"What do you mean?" Martha asked, making the Doctor glance at him. "How can that thing be a spoiler?"

"Thing?" The Doctor asked, his head whirling around to look at Susan. "What thing?"

Susan grinned. Well, what the heck. "I've got a screwdriver."

The Doctor frowned. "What do you need a screwdriver for?"

Susan stared at him and raised an eyebrow. "Sonic," she said slowly.

"What?" the Doctor asked, baffled. "What?"

Susan smiled. "You're doing that thing again," she said and took the screwdriver out, raising it on his eye level. "Here it is."

The Doctor stared at it with wide-eyed wonder. "What?"

"It's a sonic screwdriver, Doctor," Susan said, amused. "You shouldn't be that surprised."

"But why would you have a sonic screwdriver!" He grabbed it from her hands.

Susan shrugged. "I dunno," she said. "I had one with me when I came into this universe, but it was only a replica of one of your future screwdrivers." She grinned. "I got a working one in the post like I said. But that one's the replica, so no use trying to figure it out, it's just a toy."

The Doctor noticed it too. "How crude," he said, after pushing a few buttons and frowned. "A screwdriver that looks like screwdriver, sounds like one but doesn't actually work."

Susan poked him on his shoulder. "Well we fans have to have some kind of entertainment," she said. "I used to take that with me everywhere and sonic random people."

Martha let out a laugh. "You did?"

Susan grinned at her. "Oh, sorry," she giggled. "I still do that. That's the reason I took it with me on my language course in Wales."

"Language course?" The Doctor looked up at her. "So you really are from Finland?"

Susan nodded. "Yep."

"Thought I recognized your accent," he said. "The Santa Claus sounds just like you."

Susan glared at her, while Martha gaped. "Har har har," she said. "You're hilarious."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "I'm not joking," he said and then took a closer look at Susan. "So… You said my life was a TV series in your world."

"Doctor Who, yep."

"I'd reckon you'd know a lot about me then," he said, with an odd look in his eyes. "Is Susan actually your real name or did you…?"

"Rude." Susan poked him again. The she let took a step back and looked up at him. "I'm not that cruel Doctor," she said, feeling bad that the Doctor thought so little of her. "Susan actually is my name, I didn't just choose it to get in your good books because of… Well, you know."

Martha was confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Well," the Doctor scratched his neck. "Susan was one of my granddaughter's aliases while we were on earth."

"What?" Martha's eyes widened. "You had a granddaughter?" She shook her head. "Scratch that, you had a daughter?"

Susan wanted to poke her but was too far away to do so. "Rude!" she quipped over the Doctor's shoulder, and Martha shut her mouth.

"I did, yes," the Doctor said, turning back to work on the TARDIS console, not looking at either of them. "Long ago. Life times ago."

Susan glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "Literally."

"You probably know everything about my regenerations, don't you?" The Doctor asked after a minute, and groaned, finally realizing what kind of fan he was dealing with.

"Well," Susan said, trying to be modest. "Only about the most recent ones. And I'd recognize the older ones I guess, but they're a bit more distant for me since I've only seen a few episodes of the old series."

The Doctor turned, and the two of them stared at each other for a while, locked in a silent conversation. Martha could feel the tension filling the room.

"Not a word."

Susan nodded. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

* * *

><p>The next morning found Susan making tea in the kitchen. She was wearing a green hoodie and dark jeans. She had earbuds in her ears, and was fully immersed in listening '<em>Doctor What<em>', one of her favorite songs from the band Chameleon Circuit.

"_He takes danger with him everywhere he goes  
>so if he does show up,<br>then we'll know that something's not right.  
>But I just can't help to think, that I would<br>make a good companion by his side,  
>I'm pretty bright, always polite,<br>Oh, doctor take me up tonight!_"

She sang in time with the lyrics, and started to drum her hands on the counter in the beat.

"_I know that I should get a grip,  
>but I need to see inside his ship,<br>and have him take me everywhere he's gone.  
>Or at least I'd like to meet the guy,<br>to shake his and then say goodbye,  
>and thank him for all he's done.<br>_

_You can't deny that aliens must be real!  
>Well is it that hard to believe that<br>some may be revealed to look like us?  
>Well I know it's just all speculation,<br>but I feel like I must,  
>try to trust him what I feel.<em>"

She did a quite embarrassing dance move while waiting for the water to boil.

"_He's called the Doctor!  
>But Doctor What?<br>I think he's a martian,  
>thought I know that<br>that's a long shot,_

_Doctor. But Doctor When?  
>I'll check back to prehistoric times<br>and there he is again.  
>Well that's the Doctor!<br>But Doctor How?  
>He saves the planet all the time<br>but never stops to bow.  
><em>

_Oh, Mr. Doctor.  
>But Doctor Who?<br>And most importantly Doctor,  
>how can I find you?<em>"

The water was finally done and Susan poured it on her mug, hips swining in time with the beat of the song.

"_I know I must seem  
>like some kind of Neanderthal,<br>while you're a flying cosmic  
>genius and know it all!<br>I'm just an insect,  
>there's nothing I can do.<br>How could I expect  
>that I would ever meet you?<em>"

Susan swirled around at the end of the verse and headed towards the table, but as she looked up she saw the Doctor leaning against the doorway with an amused expression on his face.

"Shit!" Susan cried, almost dropping her mug in surprise and ripping the earbuds from her ear. "Sorry. How long have you been there?" she asked, face red.

"Long enough," the Doctor said and grinned. "That's an interesting song... And you weren't kidding when you said you liked to sing."

Susan rolled her eyes and sat down, not looking at him. "Yeah, well, now I have to stop singing anywhere you could hear me," she said and added a piece of sugar in her tea. "Dunno what kind of spoilers you could get from just the songs I listen to."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Really?" he asked. He walked to the counter and poured a cup of tea for himself before joining Susan. "That's a shame," he said. "You're not that bad of a singer."

Susan poked him slightly. "Thanks," she grinned, but her grin faded as she noticed the cup on the Doctor's hand. "Doctor..."

The Doctor looked up curiously, and sipped a mouthful of the tea. The change of expression was priceless, but Susan still felt bad for him. He swallowed painfully. "What is this supposed to be?" he asked incredulously. "I thought you were making tea."

Susan smiled at him, trying not to laugh. "I tried to warn you," she said. "I'm not British Doctor, I can't make decent tea to save my life."

The Doctor put the cup aside. "Well, um," he said. "I must say that was one of the most horrible experiences in my life."

Susan rolled her eyes. "Drama queen," she muttered. "Well maybe you should make another kettle then?"

"I'm not really in the mood for tea right now." The Doctor shrugged. "Anyway, have you eaten breakfast?"

Susan nodded, taking a sip of her tea. It really didn't taste _that_ bad.

"I guess we could leave then." The Doctor stood up.

Susan looked at him. "Leave where?" she asked, drank the rest of the tea in a huge gulp (burning her tongue) and stood up, making an over exaggerated superman pose with her right hand. "I'm d'eady!"

The Doctor shook his head at her but smiled anyway. "Don't know where yet, but I think Martha might have a preference this time," he said and coughed. "...after all that time in the 1913."

They arrived in the TARDIS console room in a few moments.

"Morning, Susan!" Martha greeted.

"Morning." Susan smiled at her. "Do you have any places you want to visit? The Doctor reckoned he'd let you decide today."

The Doctor threw her a look, clearly saying, 'I was supposed to tell her that.'

Susan just grinned at him.

Martha looked thoughtful. "Could we visit London in the future?" she thought and looked at the Doctor. "I've already seen the past, I'd like to see what it's in few hundred of yeas or so."

"That's settled then!" The Doctor started running around the TARDIS console and pulling a few lever here and there. The engines started up with a loud noise. "London, year 3000."

Susan grabbed hold of the railings as the room started swaying around. "You're a horrible driver!" she laughed out. "Can't you make it any more steady?"

The Doctor jumped around and glanced at her. "Why would I want to?"

"Seriously, have you never had anyone get sick while you were driving the TARDIS?" she called out, right when the room stopped shaking and the engines made the the sound of materializing.

"The Sound of the Universe," Susan said quietly, and grinned a little. More like keeping the breaks on while driving.

"Right," the Doctor said and grinned, turning away from the controls. "It's London out there, the year of our lord 3000."

Martha was smiling brightly at him, but Susan felt a bit doubtful. She had watched the show enough times to know that the Doctor got the time more often wrong than right.

She opened the doors, quickly peeked outside and looked back at them. Well, let them live in hope, she thought, amused, and stepped outside to London that looked exactly like the 21st century.

The Doctor took his coat and went outside too, Martha following him.

"Well," the Doctor said, looking forward in the distance. They were stationed at the edge of some kind of large construction site. "At least I got the city right this time."

Susan giggled at him, seeing that Martha didn't look very pleased. "It's okay," she said. "Usually when the TARDIS brings you somewhere you weren't planning to go, there's some kind of purpose behind it."

The Doctor looked at her. "You think?"

That's when a huge green lizard walking on two legs ran past them.

Susan looked back at him. "Yep."

* * *

><p>"Tell me again why we are going there by a cab?" Susan asked, squashed between Martha and the Doctor in the back of a black London cab, the arrow quiver on her back poking at her in a very uncomfortable way.<p>

"Because the TARDIS materializing would cause harm to the eggs," the Doctor explained for the seventh time.

"We're here," the cab driver said and the Doctor gave him a fifty pounds and hundred credits. Too bad he would be long dead before the credits were usable on Earth.

"M' not very good with money, that's enough, right?" The cab driver grunted something in response, happy to take money from the 'stupid tourists'.

Martha opened the cab door and they all got out. She pointed to a direction they had came from.

"That's the last point where we saw it," she said and turned. "So it must have been going to that direction! Let's go!"

The Doctor looked at the direction she had been pointing at and then back at Martha, only to notice that she had already started running.

Susan on the other hand was finding the situation somehow familiar, and didn't realize what it was about before they were already running and a voice shouted out: "Doctor!"

Susan stopped dead in her tracks, turned, and noticed immediately that they had gotten out of the cab in front of a shop called _Sparrow & Nightingale: Antiquarian books and rare DVD's_. A young blonde was running towards them with a purple file in her hand.

"Doctor!" Sally cried, out of breath.

"Hello!" the Doctor said brightly, and waved his hand towards way they were heading. "Sorry, bit of a rush, there's a sort of, thing... happening. Fairly important we stop it."

"My god," Sally breathed. "It's you, it's really you." She must have seen the Doctor's confused expression, as she said: "You don't remember me, do you?"

Susan coughed. "We haven't met you yet, Sally," she said.

"We don't have time for this!" Martha said, anxious to get moving. "The migration's starting!"

"How did you then..." Sally asked, looking at Susan.

Susan shrugged and smiled. "Complicated, can't tell you, sorry."

The Doctor glanced at Susan, who just raised her eyebrows.

"Look, sorry," he said to Sally, "Got a bit of a complex life. Things don't always happen to me in the right order. Get's confusing. Especially at weddings, I'm rubbish at weddings," he said and paused to grimace. "Especially my own."

"Oh, my god," Sally said, her expression brightening. "Of course! You're a time traveler, it hasn't happened yet. None of it, it's still in your future."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "What hasn't happened?"

"Doctor!" Martha said. "Twenty minutes to red hatching!"

Sally seemed to be having an epiphany. "It was me!" she said, letting out a breath. "Oh, for god's sake, it was me all along. You got it all from me!"

The Doctor was confused. "Got what?"

Sally took a deep breath. "Okay," she said." Listen. One day, you're going to get stuck in 1969. Make sure you've got this with you." She handed him the file. "You're going to need it."

"Doctor!" Martha yelled impatiently. Susan ran up to her.

"Yeah, yeah," Doctor said, waving towards Susan and Martha. "Listen, got to dash... Things happening... Well, four things." He paused. "Well, four things and a lizard."

Sally smiled. "Okay. No worries, on you go." The Doctor walked away. "See you around, some day."

The Doctor turned around again. "What was your name?"

"Sally Sparrow."

He smiled. "Good to meet you, Sally Sparrow."

That's when Larry walked up to them and Susan had to hide a giggle behind her hand. He looked at the Doctor, dumbstruck, reminding her of Rory Williams. Sally took his hand.

"Goodbye, Doctor." They walked together back into the shop.

The Doctor hurried to Susan and Martha.

"What was that about?" the Doctor asked, looking at Susan.

Susan shrugged. "Something important," she said vaguely. Then she poked him. "But just remember to keep that thing with you, because if you lose it before we need it, I'll have your head."

The Doctor looked at her oddly. "Okay."

Martha sighed at them, her arms crossed. "Hello!" she cried. "The hatching!"

They both turned to look at Martha. After that, there an awful lot of running to do.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I loved writing this chapter too. Please, remember to review to let me know what you think!

The song "Doctor What" is by Chameleon Circuit. If you've never heard of them, then god, you have to go to youtube and listen to their songs. I insist. You're missing out a lot.


	13. Blink

**A/N: **Ooh, look, it's an update!

Yeah, hiya guys. I know that this chapter is way too short in comparison to the few previous ones, but I promise you that the next chapter will be very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long. I've already written almost all of it down, but unfortunately I wrote it by hand so I need to rewrite it on my computer before I can get it published. Sorry.

I really hope you like the way this is going.

Remember to review!

Those things keep me going while I'm suffering here in this frozen and forsaken place called Finland. (Seriously, it's so COLD.)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5: Blink<strong>

The TARDIS hummed quietly, floating inside the time vortex. The engines were silent while the crew was located inside the control room, all three of them scattered around the round console panels. The Doctor was flicking switches and pushing buttons, while Martha stood aside and watched him work.

Susan was sitting on the TARDIS bench seat, tapping her foot in sync with the familiar drumming beat she remembered hearing a while back when she was last watching the show in her universe. It was quite catchy, she had to admit. Even back in her universe she had sometimes found herself tapping her fingers in the peculiar beat. She looked up at the Doctor at that thought. It was the beating of a time lord's hearts.

The Lizard case (as Susan dubbed it) had been fun, and afterwards they had visited a very beautiful planet with inhabitants that looked very much like humans but had four hands. Now they were debating on where they would go next. The Doctor of course insisted on going to London in the year 3000, since that had been their original destination before the Lizard Case.

Susana inwardly wondered if the Doctor had read Sally's file yet.

"Did you know..." Susan started nonchalantly as she could, "That there's a haunted mansion in Western Drumlings near London in 2007?"

The Doctor looked up at her. "Really?" he asked curiously. "What kind?"

Susan bit her lip. She wasn't exactly sure if this was going to be pleasant, but... Well, they had to go there someday, didn't they?

"People keep disappearing there." And besides, it might be fun. She had never been in the 60's before.

"Sounds dangerous..." Martha said.

All three exchanged glances and grinned.

* * *

><p>"The glamour is kind of wearing off now," Susan said almost a week later as they walked back from work towards their small apartment. Martha and Susan had got their jobs almost the same day they had got stuck in 1969, and fortunately the shop was big enough to have jobs for both of them.<p>

Susan couldn't deny that she'd grown considerably closer to Martha and the Doctor while spending time with them in the past. Sure, the Doctor slept in the living room so he didn't actually take part in their nightly girl talk, but then again, they'd never actually seen him sleep much. He was always awake when either of the two of them woke up or came back from work.

Martha looked at her and frowned. "What do you mean? Don't you like traveling with us anymore?"

Susan shook her head. "No," she said. "That's not it. It's just that this isn't exactly what I imagined."

Martha grinned. "You never imagined working in a shop to support _him_?"

Susan smiled at her and let out a laugh. "Not really. And you know, when I watched you guys on the telly..." she paused. "God, I'm becoming British. I've started calling TV _telly_.".

Martha laughed at that. "That's what you get for hanging around with us," she said, teasing her. "Don't you start forgetting your Finnish if you only speak English all the time? How long has it been since you came to UK?"

Susan screwed up her face in thought. "Ummmmm," she let out. "I don't really know. It's really hard to keep count, but I had been here for two weeks when I found myself in this world's Cardiff. I think it's been at least four weeks since I last spoke Finnish to anyone properly."

Martha shook her head, amused. "Maybe you should start speaking Finnish when we get the TARDIS back," she said. "You know it translates every language there is, right?"

"Hadn't even thought of that." Susan said and made a face. "What a weird idea. I don't think I'd be comfortable speaking Finnish to you guys, even though you could understand it."

Martha's grin faded. "Why not?"

"I don't know." Susan shrugged. "It's just something about the Doctor and everything, it makes me feel like English is the most international language of all." She let out a laugh. "After all, even the aliens speak English in Doctor Who!"

Martha couldn't help but join her laughter. "Well that's true," she said, grinning. "At least we hear them speak English. I have no idea how many languages I've heard during the last few months!"

Susan smiled at that. "It shall remain a mystery." She was silent for a minute and sighed. "Anyway, getting a job in a shop wasn't exactly my idea of entertainment."

"Yeah, but you have to admit that this is at least a bit more exciting than just living normally on the 21st century!" Martha said, giving Susan a pointed look. "We're in the past! We've got the moon landing to look forward to."

Susan stopped suddenly, her face going white with realization. Oh god, she thought. They can't be allowed to see the moon landing, that would ruin everything.

"Susan, are you okay?"

Susan looked at Martha, who had stopped a few feet away from her, looking at Susan with a concerned expression on her face.

"We've got to find the Doctor, now!" Susan said and rushed past Martha, who was just left standing there. "There's something very important I have to tell him!"

Two minutes later she reached the flat.

"Doctor!" Susan yelled, opening the door with a bang.

The Doctor was sitting on the floor, surrounded by space junk, toasters and much more of the 60's technology that was scattered around him in pieces.

"What's wrong?" He asked, looking up and correcting his glasses.

Susan stood there for a while, gasping to catch her breath and staring at him for a while.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm building my own timey wimey detector," the Doctor answered, grinning up at her.

Susan crossed her arms. "Finally read that folder, did you?" she asked, rolling her eyes. He was so slow sometimes. Bloody amazing, yes, but slow.

"Yep," the Doctor answered, taking off his glasses to peer up at Susan. "And it was quite brilliant."

Susan nodded and opened her mouth to answer, when Martha barged through the doorway.

"Susan!" she breathed out. "What's the emergency?"

Susan blinked and realized why Martha was looking so concerned. "Sorry," she said and scratched her neck. "Not exactly an emergency... I just had to reach him fast so I wouldn't forget to tell him this one thing."

Martha groaned, but there was a smile lingering on her lips. "What's so important then?"

The Doctor stared up at the two of them from the floor. "Go on..." he urged Susan with a curious expression.

Susan took a deep breath. "We're not allowed to watch the moon landing while we're here," she said seriously, looking him straight in the eye. "Please, just do as I say, you're not allowed to watch the moon landing."

The Doctor frowned. "I've already seen it."

Susan shook her head. "No, I mean you're not allowed to see the broadcast while we're here."

"Why not?"

Susan bit her lip, a habit she had developed very quickly upon entering this world. "Spoilers."

"Spoilers?"

Susan narrowed her eyes at the Doctor's curious tone. "It's got something to do with your future, and that's why you're not allowed to see it."

"Something to do with my future?" the Doctor repeated. "How interesting... Wait, don't tell me! You've got to keep me asking about these kind of things." He groaned. "Knowing your own future is never good!"

Susan sighed in relief. The Doctor was finally taking this seriously. "That's exactly what I was thinking," she said, but then looked at the Doctor more closely. "By the way, we never spoke about these situations."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "We didn't?"

Susan shook her head. "I'm still not sure what I should do with my knowledge."

"I thought you already knew what you were going to do?" Martha asked, confused. "After all, you were the one to open the fob watch."

Susan glanced at her and frowned. "I have a vague sense of the things I'd like to change," she said, turning back to face the Doctor. "But I don't think that I could even try to change everything that's going to happen. Because that would just make my knowledge useless. I think I should just stick to the timeline I know..."

The Doctor didn't look very pleased. "No one should have that kind of power," he muttered. "But if you can handle it, try not to change anything too big. Like important events in history. Timelines don't take kindly to meddling."

Susan had a flashback to the Waters of the Mars episode and she shuddered. "Not a problem."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows at that and looked down at his timey wimey detector. "Right," he said brightly, standing up. "I think I'm finished!"

The Doctor started explaining everything about his timey timey detector, and Martha listened intently. Susan tuned them out. She was still a bit worried about the whole moonlanding thing. Had Martha ever seen the moonlanding? Did she now have an automatic response to the Silence? Susan doubted she'd ever know.

But what she was even more concerned about was herself. She had seen those creatures on Doctor Who, and still remembered them. However, they'd been no more than actors behind alien masks back then. But would she remember if she ever actually did meet a real one?

The thought was frightening, but Susan had to let it go for now. It would be a long while before the Silence would begin to be problem for them. She still had End of the Universe and the Year That Never Was to look forward to... Which wasn't exactly a comforting thought.

Susan just hoped that whatever happened, the Doctor wouldn't get mad at her for not stopping it. She knew that she could try to change everything since she still remembered so much from the tv series. But would it really make a difference?

Susan had saved some lives by opening the fob watch back in 1913. But in the end, the Family had met their horrible fate as the Doctor punished them anyway. Nothing really changed at all, aside from the fact that now Nurse Redfern didn't go writing a _Journal of Impossible_ things about meeting an alien man in the 1913. Susan stifled a giggle at the thought. Missing that book probably wasn't a terrible loss at all.

Then the _Utopia _episode would happen soon after this, Susan thought and frowned. She didn't have a clue if the Doctor would take them to Cardiff immediately after getting the TARDIS back, or if they got a few more trips to go. She hoped it was the latter, since she could already feel her nerves starting to get to her.

The Master would be there. She would get meet the Master. The real one, not just his actor, even though meeting John Simm would be a highlight of her day anytime. But she would meet the real Master, the brilliant, amazing and insane person who would cause so much pain for all of them.

Her gaze automatically fell back on the Doctor, who of course, noticed.

He stopped his explanation and glanced at her.

"Something wrong?" he asked curiously, making Martha to look at Susan too.

All that Susan could think was how the Doctor looked so young and innocent. He hadn't even seen the half of the horrible things that would later affect the 11th Doctor. And he would never see them coming, not until it was too late.

"Nope," she said and smiled as well as she could. Suddenly she was feeling like her stomach was full of rats, gnawing away at her insides.

"Everything's just fine."


	14. Blogging

**Chapter 6: Blogging at the end of the universe**

Even though all three of them already knew they were going to get the TARDIS back, they were still pleasantly surprised and maybe a little relieved to see the blue time machine materialise in front of them almost a week later in Western Drumlins. The last two weeks had felt very long for everyone involved, and after a brief silence they all went their separate ways to their rooms to be alone for a while. Both Susan and Martha had agreed about taking a long nice bath, but they had no idea what the Doctor was going to do in his room. And to be fair, Susan didn't really even care, as long as she could take a long shower without worrying about using all the hot water.

Almost quarter of an hour later and feeling much more fresh, Susan headed back to the control room. To her surprise both Martha and the Doctor were already there, lingering around the TARDIS console. Susan went to stand beside Martha, who nodded to her in greeting.

"So where are we heading now?" Susan asked, the leather bag looped over her shoulder. Susan never left the TARDIS unprepared. Otherwise she would probably be running after Martha and the Doctor without any useful equipment (like psychic paper) at all. The bigger-on-the-inside bag had proven to be rather useful while they were in the 60's, since she actually had some extra clothes to change into, unlike some other people she could mention.

The Doctor looked up from the console at her question, and grinned silently. He flicked some switches and jumped around the console. The TARDIS started humming and soon the dematerialisation sound (or the breaks, as Susan knew them as,) started.

"Cardiff," he said, pulled a lever, and grinned again.

Susan grinned back at his enthusiastic expression, but on the inside it felt like her guts were twisting around. Good god, it was really going to be today.

"Cardiff?" Martha asked, bemused.

"Ah," the Doctor nodded, his expression gleeful as he took steps across the console room to get to another lever.

"But the thing about Cardiff is that it's built on a rift in time and space-just like California and the San Andreas Fault," he rambled, then went quiet and turned his head to look at Susan. "The very rift actually, that brought Susan here."

Martha's eyes widened, and Susan nodded silently, deciding to keep quiet.

"The rift _bleeds_ energy." He made a vague gesture with his hands. "Every now and then I need to open up the engines, soak up the energy and use it as fuel."

Martha's expression cleared. "So it's a pit stop!"

"Exactly!" the Doctor said, and pulled yet another lever down. "Should only take twenty seconds."

He frowned thoughtfully. "The rift's been active."

Susan coughed awkwardly and hid a smile behind her hand. If the Doctor only knew just how active the rift had been, he'd probably be even more furious at Torchwood than ever before.

Martha shot a suspicious glance at Susan, and then turned toward the Doctor.

"Wait a minute," she said, frowning. "They had an earthquake at Cardiff couple of years ago. Was it you?"

Susan glanced back and forth between the Doctor and Martha, amused by the Doctor's expression.

"Bit trouble with the Slitheen," he said and stared forward without actually seeing anything. "Long time ago. Lifetimes," he added and pulled down his ear in a nervous gesture. "I was a different man back then."

Susan sneaked behind him and stole a glance at the monitor, where Jack was running across the Plass towards them. "Doctor..." she said, scowling at him.

The Doctor just glanced at her and silently raised an eyebrow. He turned back to the consoled. "Finito!" he said, ignoring Susan, and pulling one or two levers to start the journey away. "All powered up." He looked up at the moving glass thing in the middle with a gleeful expression.

Susan sighed. He was so rude to Jack. "Doctor..."

Martha frowned and glanced at Susan, then back at the Doctor. Something was definitely going on.

Just as the TARDIS was beginning to dematerialise, the whole control room shook violently and all three were thrown back on the floor. The TARDIS console made a few hissing sounds and let out sparks.

"Whoah!" Susan said and rubbed her backside. "That hurt."

They all clung to the console as the TARDIS continued to shook uncontrollably.

"What's that?" Martha asked, looking at the Doctor.

The console let out a few more sparks and started smoking. Susan waved her hand around, not wanting to breath the alien smoke that would be deadly in too big doses.

The Doctor stared at the monitor, scowling at what he saw.

"We're accelerating?" he asked out loud, staring hard at the Gallifreyan text. "Into the future. The year one billion. Five billion. Five trillion." His voice was getting incredulous. "50 trillion. _What?_ The year 100 trillion. That's impossible!"

Susan took a look at the text too, but as expected, didn't understand it. She just saw a group of round circles. "What happens then?" she asked, gladly stealing Martha's line. She was getting ridiculously anxious about what was about to happen.

The Doctor's mouth opened and closed. He glanced at both Susan and Martha, his expression baffled. "We're going to the end of the universe."

After a while the TARDIS stopped moving and went silent. They all let go of the console and stared around them carefully, listening to the TARDIS as it let out eerie creaking sounds.

"Well, we've landed," the Doctor said, throwing an uncertain glance at both Susan and Martha, who were both staring at him seriously.

"So what's out there?" Martha asked.

"I don't know," he revealed, his face looking even a bit fearful.

Martha huffed. "Say that again," she said. "That's rare."

The Doctor looked at her. "Not even the time lords came this far," he said. "We should leave." Martha swallowed, and the Doctor glanced at Susan, whose face was blank. "We should should go. We should really, really... go."

Then he grinned and the moment was over. Martha grinned back and they both ran to the door at amazing speed.

Susan went after them, glad that both of them missed the lack of grin on her face. This whole thing was going to be screwed up, she thought and sighed, stepping through the doors. Really, really screwed.

It was dark and cold outside, and Susan was glad she'd chosen to wear her proper black coat.

"Oh my god!" Martha yelled just as Susan stepped through the doors. Martha ran to Jack, who was dead on the ground, and tried to take his pulse. Susan walked to stand next to the Doctor, who was staring at Jack with a grim expression.

"There's no pulse!" Martha yelled and stood up. "Hold on, you've got that medical kit thing," she said and ran back to the TARDIS.

Susan rolled her eyes and went to stand beside Jack.

"Hello again," the Doctor said, looking down at Jack an grimacing. "Oh, I'm sorry." He looked away.

Martha came back very quickly with the medical kit. "Here we go," she said and pushed past the Doctor. "Get out of the way."

As she kneeled down, she looked a bit more closely at Jack. "It's a bit odd, though. Not very 100 trillian – that coat's more like World War two."

Susan hid a smile and looked down at Jack. He looked so ghastly white, poor guy.

"I think he came with us," the Doctor said.

Martha looked up at him. "What do you mean?" she asked. "From earth?"

"Must've been clinging to the TARDIS," the Doctor said and glanced back at it. "All the way through the vortex." He shook his head. "Wow, that's very him."

Martha's eyes widened. "What, do you know him?"

"Friend of mine," the Doctor said. "Used to travel with me. Back in the old days."

Martha looked first down at Jack, then back up at the Doctor. "But he's..." she trailed off. "I'm sorry, but there's no pulse, there's nothing. He's dead."

Susan grinned. "Should you try mouth-to-mouth?" she asked and glanced at the Doctor, who scowled. Martha threw a glare at her.

"How can you be joking at a time like this, this man's dead-" she started, but was cut off as Jack gasped and gripped the nearest person next to him, who was of course Martha. She let out a scream.

"Well, that's much for me," Martha said breathlessly. "It's all right, just breathe deep. I've got you now."

Jack looked up at his saviour. "Captain Jack Harkness," he said and smiled charmingly. "And who are _you_?"

Martha giggled. "Martha Jones."

"Nice to meet you Martha Jones."

Susan had to force back a giggle herself at his tone of voice. He was so corny!

"Oh, don't start!" the Doctor groaned, sounding like he had said it thousands times and finally grown tired of it.

"I was only saying hello," Jack said, frowning.

Susan chose that moment to take a step into his line of sight. "You didn't say that to _me_ when we met," she said and pouted. Then she grinned, holding out her hand. "Need a hand?"

"Susan!" Jack said, eyes widening as he took her hand and heaved himself up. "But I only just saw you ten minutes ago!"

"Hold on!" the Doctor said, clearly annoyed. "You two know each other?"

Susan looked at him and poked out her tongue childishly. "Jack's actually the first person I met in this universe," she said. "He helped me to set up my life in Cardiff."

The Doctor made a displeased sound at the back of his throat.

Susan ignored him and turned back to Jack. "It's been a few minutes for you, but just over two weeks for me. Time travel, you know."

Jack nodded. "So you really did find him like you said you would," he said, grinning.

Susan scratched the back of her head. "Actually I met him by accident."

The Doctor obviously didn't like being ignored.

"Captain," he greeted, cutting Susan's tale short.

Jack turned to face him, his expression more serious now. "Doctor," he said. "Good to see you again."

The Doctor nodded back. "And you, same as ever." His expression changed into a curious one. "Although, have you had work done?"

"You can talk!" Jack scowled.

The Doctor blinked. "Oh, yes," he said. "The face! Regeneration," he clarified, then frowned. "How did you know it was me?"

"The police box kind of gives it away," Jack said. "I've been following you for a long time."

Susan decided not to point out how stalkerish that sounded, and wandered to stand next to Martha, who was glancing between Jack and the Doctor.

"You abandoned me," Jack accused.

The Doctor's face was blank. "Did I?" he asked lightly. "Busy life. Moving on."

Jack stared at him for a while. "Just got to ask," he started. "The battle of Canary Wharf. I saw the list of the dead... It said Rose Tyler."

The Doctor looked at him for a moment before his face brightened. "Oh, no, sorry!" he said. "She's alive."

Jack's eyes widened. "You're kidding!"

The clearly fake smile made its way to the Doctor's face.

"Parallel world," he chirped. "Safe and sound. And Mickey!" he continued. "And her mother!"

There was an expression of amazement and joy on Jack's face. "Oh yes!" he gushed and grabbed the Doctor into a bear hug, both of them laughing and practically dancing around.

Susan eyed them closely. That one didn't look much like a man hug, she thought. It was more of a '_I love you marry me please_' kind of hug. Must have been because Captain Jack was involved.

"Good old Rose," Martha whispered.

Susan glanced at her and bit her lip. She had never really liked Rose that much, but to be fair, she hadn't liked Martha either. And look at them now, after spending all the time together they were good friends. Rose wasn't that bad either nowadays, to be honest.

They started making their way onwards, Susan and Martha on both sides of Jack and the Doctor walking ahead of them. Jack started entertaining them with the story of how he had gotten stranded in the future.

"And there I was, year 200100, ankle deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me," he said, glancing at the Doctor briefly. "But I had this," he continued, tapping his fingers at the machine on his wrist. "I used to be a Time Agent. It's called a vortex manipulator." He threw a dark look at the Doctor. "He's not the only one who can time travel."

The Doctor groaned and turned. "Oh, excuse me!" he said. "_That_ is not time travel. It's like I've got a sports car, you've got a space hopper!"

Susan giggled. "I used to have that on a t-shirt."

Martha grinned at her. "Ohhoh," she said. "Boys and their toys."

Jack scowled. "All right, so I bounced," he said. "21st century, I thought. The perfect place to find the Doctor, except I got it a little wrong." Susan giggled at that and Jack threw a mocking glance at her. "I arrived in 1869 and this thing burnt out so it was useless."

The Doctor shrugged. "I told you so."

"Doesn't sound very reliable," Susan tutted and raised an eyebrow. "Don't they teach you how to fix those things at the Agency?"

Jack pursed his lips at her. "They do," he said, a little coldly. "But not with the kind of technology that could be found in the 19th century."

Susan brought up her hands in defence. "Sorry, just asking."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I had to live through the entire 20th century, waiting for a version of you that would coincide with me!" he said with a pointed look at the Doctor.

Martha looked at him closely. "But that makes you more than a hundred years old!"

Jack grinned. "And looking good, don't ya think?" He laughed. "So I went to the time rift and based myself there, 'cause I knew you'd come back to refuel."

He gestured towards his backbag. "Until finally, I got a signal on this detecting you, and here we are."

Susan stroked her chin. "Just out of curiosity..." she started and looked between the Doctor and Jack. "Did you ever stumbled across his former regenerations?"

Jack snorted. "I never met them, but I've heard a lot of them. It seems he was working for the UNIT for some time."

Susan smiled and glanced at the Doctor, who didn't look very pleased. "Have you seen a picture of him with the scarf?"

Jack let out a laugh. "Yes," he said. "It was a very nice fashion statement."

Susan bit her lip. "Don't forget about the celery."

"Oi!" The Doctor yelled. "There is nothing wrong with my fashion sense!"

Jack raised and eyebrows, but kept silent.

Susan grinned at him. "Of course not, sweetie," she said, winking. Then she frowned at her own choice of words.

"Wait, scratch that. Forget I called you sweetie. Never doing that again," she said. It was so wrong, since she wasn't exactly River Song or anything. Getting a weird look from Martha and the Doctor, Susan shook her head and continued, "Anyway, your fashion sense has just always been somewhat... unique."

Martha snorted at that. "Converse shoes with a suit, yeah, I'd call that unique."

Susan glanced at her, her face serious. "Don't diss the converse."

Martha rolled her eyes, but then her face turned serious and she frowned. "But the thing is, Doctor, how come you left him behind?" Martha asked, a bit annoyed and maybe a little bit concerned.

"I was busy."

"Is that what happens though? Seriously?" she asked. "Do you just get bored with us one day and disappear?"

"Not if you're blonde," Jack quipped.

"Oh," Martha said dramatically. "She was blonde. What a surprise!"

Susan scowled at them. Nothing wrong with blondes. "That was uncalled for," she said. It's true she never really like Rose, but she wasn't stupid or anything just because she was blonde. Rose was nothing short of amazing, anyway.

The Doctor threw a grateful look at Susan and turned to face Martha and Jack.

"You two!" he said. "We're at the end of the universe, all right. We're at the edge of the knowledge itself, and you're busy..." he paused, looking for the word, "_Blogging_!"

At least they had the shame to look sorry.

"Come on."

They walked after him, stepping on the edge of a cliff. Before them was a conglomeration of the former habitants of the planet they were walking upon.

Martha was amazed. "Is that a city?"

"A city or a hive," the Doctor said. "Or a nest. Or a conglomeration."

Susan wanted to ask what the latter word actually meant, but felt like it would have disturbed the moment.

"Looks like it was grown." He pointed down. "But look, there. That's like pathways, roads. Must have been some sort of life, long ago."

Martha broke the silence. "What killed it?" she whispered.

"Time," the Doctor said. "Just time. Everything's dying now. All the great civilisations have gone." He looked up and they followed his lead. There were no stars in the sky. "This isn't just night," the Doctor said. "All the stars have burned up and faded away, into nothing."

Jack was the one to make a rather _bright_ deduction. "It must have an atmospheric shell. We should be frozen to death."

The Doctor looked doubtful. "Well, the girls and I maybe," he said. "I'm not so sure about you Jack."

Susan poked him lightly in his shoulder. "Rude."

Martha was shaking her head. "What about the people?" she asked. "Does no one survive?"

The Doctor saw her expression and tried to cheer her up. "I suppose, we have to hope. Life will find a way..."

Susan saw the man just before Jack opened his mouth.

"Well, he's not doing too bad," he said and pointed at Padra who was running away form the future kind. The Doctor narrowed his eyes.

"Is it just me or does that look like a hunt?" he asked and sprang into action. "Come one!"

They followed him without questions asked.

Jack burst into laughter as they ran down from the cliff.

"Haha!" he shouted. "I've missed this!"

They caught up with Padra who ran straight into Jack's arms. "I've got you!" he said to the panicking man and stepped in front of him, drawing his webley from his belt.

The Doctor saw the gun and scowled. "Jack, don't you dare!" the Doctor warned.

Jack rolled his eyes and fired a few times into the air. The future kind stopped at the loud noise and backed down.

"What the hell are they?" Martha asked.

Susan shuddered. "I don't care, let's just run."

Padra agreed with her. "There's more of them, we've got to keep going!"

The Doctor grasped Padra's shoulders. "I've got a ship nearby, it's safe," he said. "It's not far, it's just over there -" He turned and saw more of the future kind coming form the direction of the TARDIS. "Or maybe not."

"We're close to the Silo, if we get to the Silo we're safe!" Padra yelled.

The Doctor looked back at Jack, Martha and Susan.

"Silo?"

"Silo!"

"Silo for me!" Martha said, raising her hand.

They turned towards Susan only to notice that she was already running.

It took them almost two minutes to reach the gates of the silo. Susan felt like her feet were going to fall of any minute. It had been along time since she had been running for that long, that fast. It definitely didn't help that she was still feeling nauseated from all the excitement and nervousness. God, she was a bloody mental case.

"It's the future kind!" Padra yelled. The guards scrambled around the gate.

"Show me your teeth!" they yelled back. Susan was already grimacing by the time Padra repeated the sentence at their little group and the Doctor and others showed their teeth. The guards flashed the lights at their faces and noticed their normal teeth. "Human," one of the guards yelled in confirmation, "Let them in! Let them in!"

They went through the gate and Susan felt like she could drop dead on the ground any moment now.

One of the guards fired at the ground near the gate and the future kind all stepped backwards at the loud noise.

"Humans!" the leader hissed, sneering. "Humani. Make feast!"

Susan shuddered and grabbed ad hold of the Doctor's jacked, hiding her face between his shoulder blades. The future kind had always crepeed her out a little too much. The Doctor wiggled at the contact and glanced at her over his shoulder.

"Susan," he sighed, but upon noticing that she wasn't going to move or answer, he rolled his eyes and turned back to the gate.

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Doctor," he said, trying not to laugh. "You seem to have something stuck on the back of your coat."

The Doctor just grunted in response.

Martha laughed at the two of them. "Susan, what are you doing?" she asked.

Susan hugged the Doctor a bit tighter at the question, not really wanting to let go. She moved her head a little to glance at Martha and Jack. "Scary monsters gonna eat me," she whispered, and almost smiled at their expressions.

Jack snorted. "How long have you been traveling with her again?" he asked Martha, clearly amused.

"About three weeks, almost four."

"And she's still like that?"

Martha frowned. "Actually, this is the first time she's been this nervous..."

The Doctor glanced at them. "Blogging," he said pointedly, then turned around quickly and caught Susan by her shoulders before she could move. "And you, try to get a hold of yourself, we'll be fine."

Susan wanted to cry, she wanted to shout that no, they wouldn't be fine, because everything would be like hell for the next year, but she couldn't. She stared straight at his eyes for a moment, unblinking.

"Oh," she said and smiled. "Right, sorry." Susan wanted to keep hugging him and apologize for the rest of eternity for what was about to happen, but she knew she couldn't do that.

So she let him go.

The Doctor pulled his ear and turned to the guards and Padra, who had all been shamelessly staring at them for the last two minutes. "Thanks about that," he said.

One of the guards coughed and started walking. They followed him. "Let's get you inside."

"My name is Padrafet Safekane," Padra said. "Tell me, can you take me to Utopia?"

The guard grinned at him. "Oh, yes sir," he said. "Yes I can."

* * *

><p>"It's like a box, a big blue box," the Doctor said a moment later. "I'm sorry, but I really need it back, it's stuck out there."<p>

Padra was more concerned about his family and spoke immediately after the Doctor.

"I'm sorry, but my family were heading for the silo," he said. "Did they get here? My mother is Kistane Shafekane. My brother is Beltone."

The guard nodded. "The computers are down but you can check the paperwork," he said. "Creet!" As he bellowed, a young blonde boy around ten stuck his head around stuck his head around the corner. "Passenger needs help."

Creet nodded and walked to them. "Right," he said professionally. "What d'you need?"

Padra walked over to Creet and looked at his clipboard.

The guard turned back to the Doctor. "A blue box you say?"

The Doctor brightened up a little. "Big, tall, wooden," he said. "Says "police.""

The guard nodded. "We're driving out for the last water collection. I'll see what I can do."

The Doctor smiled. "Thank you."

All this time Padra had been talking with Creet, and Martha had been staring at the boy oddly. "Come on!" Creet said and walked off.

Martha followed him. "Sorry, but how old are you?" she asked.

Creet glanced back at her, bit amused. "Old enough to work," he answered. "This way."

They all followed him, and god, the stink was horrible. Susan realised that the place really was like a refugee camp.

"Kistane Shafekane," Creet called out. "Kistane and Beltone Shafekane?"

Martha was looking around with pity in her eyes, Susan noticed and then glanced at the Doctor, who looked more amazed than anything.

"It's like a refugee camp," Martha voiced Susan's thought out loud.

Jack wrinkled up his nose. "Stinking!" he said and as a man glared at him, he corrected: "Ooh, sorry, no offence."

The Doctor was beaming. "Don't you see that? The ripe smell of humans," he said. "You survived. Oh, much better than a million years evolving into clouds of gas. And then another million as downloads, but you always revert back to the same basic shape. The fundamental humans." He shook his head.

"Kistane Shafekane!"

"End of the universe and here you are!" The Doctor grinned. "Indomitable! That's the world. Indomitable! Ha!"

Susan couldn't help but grin back at him as they hurried to keep up with Creet. He was looking so happy that Susan felt even more awful about what was going to happen to all of those humans.

"Is there a Kistane Shafekane?"

A woman stood up. "That's me!" she said and gasped as she saw Padra.

"Mother?"

"Oh my god," she said and they ran towards each other to hug. "Padra!"

Martha grinned brightly at the sight. "It's not all bad news!" she said, glancing at the Doctor and Susan. The Doctor started sonicking a door nearby while Jack found some entertainment.

"Captain Jack Harkness," he said, shaking the man's hand. "And who are you?"

"Stop it!" the Doctor warned, not even looking his way. Susan stood next to him, curious about what he was doing. She frowned, not remembering this bit. "Give us a hand with this. It's half deadlocked, see if you can override the door."

Jack set to work on the keypad while the Doctor sontinued sonicking the door itself.

The Doctor grinned. "Let's find out where we are!" he said and slid the door open.

Susan's eyes widened as she realised what was happening, and she grabbed a hold of his jacket before he could fall.

"Doctor!" she gasped. "Be a little more careful when opening doors by force, okay? If a door is locked, there's usually a reason for it!"

The Doctor took a step back and smiled sheepishly. "Thanks."

They looked up in amazement at the huge rocket, hot air swirling all around them in the form of steam.

"Now that's what I call a rocket," Martha breathed out.

The Doctor came to a conclusion. "They're not refugees," he said, frowning. "They're passengers."

Susan shook her head. "You honestly figured that out only now?" They looked back at her. "The guard told the little boy that a _passenger _needed help," she said, amused by their expressions. "You just don't pay attention to the things around you, do you?"

Martha nodded absently. "They said they were going to Utopia," she said, looking up at the Doctor who was back staring at the rocket.

"The perfect place," he said. "Hundred trillion years, it's still the same old dream." He looked at Jack. "Do you recognize the engines?"

Jack shook his head. "Nope," he said. "But whatever it is, it's not rocket science. But it's hot, though."

The Doctor nodded. "Boiling."

Susan took a step backwards so that they could close the door.

"But if the universe is falling apart," the Doctor started, and glanced at Susan. "What does Utopia mean?"

Susan pursed her lips and then grinned a little. "I wrote an essay about Utopia once," she said absently. "Well, about Dystopia, the lack of Utopia, to be certain."

The Doctor raised and eyebrow at him, but Susan was saved from an explanation as Professor Yana ran up to them, glancing between the Doctor and Jack.

"The Doctor?" he asked Jack, making Susan snort and Jack frown at her.

The Doctor's face brightened. "That's me!" he said.

Professor Yana turned to him and grabbed his hands. "Oh, good, good!" he yelled, pulling the Doctor with him. They all followed the pair, with the professor mumbling 'good" all the way.

The Doctor looked back at them with a smile. "It's good, apparently!"

Susan kept silent as they followed them into the room with all the rocket controls.

"Chan – Welcome, – tho," Chanto greeted them. Susan nodded and gave her a brief smile.

Professor Yana started showing the Doctor around.

"This is the gravitissimal accelerator," he said and moved around. "And over here is the footprint impellor system, if you know anything about end time gravity..."

Martha smiled at Chanto. "Hello," she said. "Who are you?"

Chanto nodded in a very Asian fashion. "Chan – Chanto, – tho."

Jack grinned at her. "Captain Jack Harkness."

The Doctor glanced up. "Stop it!"

Jack glared at him. "Can't I say hello to anyone?"

Chanto smiled shyly. "Chan – I do not protest, – tho." She giggled.

Jack winked. "Maybe later blue," he said and joined the Doctor. "So what have we got here?"

Martha followed Jack, curious about the bubbling noise coming from his backbag.

"All this feeds into the rocket?" the Doctor asked Yana.

"Yeah, except without a stable footprint we'll never achieve escape velocity," Yana said. "If we only could harmonize the five impact patterns and unify them, well, we might just make it," he said hopefully.

"What do you think Doctor? Any ideas?"

The Doctor frowned. "Well, umm," he said, turning around in a circle, "Sort of... Not a clue."

"Nothing?"

"I'm not from around these parts, I've never seen a system like it," the Doctor said, grimacing. "Sorry."

Professor Yana shook his head, defeated. "No, no, I'm sorry," he said. "It's my fault. There's been so little help..."

In the sitting room area, Martha had been examining Jack's bag and pulled out a bubbling glass container with a hand inside.

"_Oh my god_," Martha said out loud, putting the container down on a table, and they all gathered around her to see what was the matter. "You've got a hand," she said to Jack. "A hand, in a jar, in your bag."

Susan giggled at the Doctor's expression.

"But, that's my hand!" he spluttered.

Jack grinned and shrugged. "I said I had a Doctor detector."

"Chan – Is this a tradition amongst your people, – tho?"

"Not on my street!" Martha said incredulously. "What do you mean it's your hand? You've got both of your hands, I can see them!"

The Doctor looked up at her. "Long story, I lost my hand on Christmas day, in a sword fight."

Martha looked amused. "Um, and you, what?" she laughed. "Grew another hand?"

Susan nodded. "Yep."

The Doctor nodded too. "Um, yeah, I did," he said and Martha's expression fell.

"Hello!" he said, wiggling his fingers at her.

Susan smiled at him. "That's so cool," she said. "Reeeeally useful too."

Professor Yana frowned. "Might I ask you, what species are you?"

The Doctor looked up at him. "Time lord. Last of. Heard of them? Legend or anything? Not even a myth?" Professor Yana shook his head, and the Doctor frowned. "Blimey, end of the universe is a bit humbling."

"Chan –, It's said that I'm the last of my species too, – tho," Chanto said.

The Doctor leaned forward in his chair. "Sorry, what was your name?"

"My assistant Chanto. A survivor of the Malmooth," Professor Yana said. "This was their planet Malcassairo, before we took refugee."

The Doctor looked up at her. "That city outside, that was yours?"

"Chan –, The conglomeration died, – tho."

"Conglomeration!" the Doctor said, leaning backwards. "That's what I said."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "You're supposed to say sorry."

"Oh, yes," the Doctor said. "Sorry."

"Chan –, Most grateful, – tho."

Martha was ignoring them. "You grew... Another hand."

Susan rolled her eyes, grinning. "Get over it already," she said. "He's an alien, remember?"

The Doctor wiggled his fingers again. "Hello again." He stood up. "It's fine, look. Really, it's me."

Martha took his hand. "Even after all this time you're still full of surprises."

The Doctor clicked his tongue and winked at her.

"Chan –, you're most unusual, – tho."

"Well," the Doctor said, not even trying to be modest.

"What about those things outside, the beastie boys, what are they?" Jack asked.

Susan answered before the professor could. "They're called the future kind, and it's feared that they are what humans will become," she said. Chanto and the professor looked at her, surprised. Susan scratched her head. "I mean, if I understood right, I heard Padra call them that and the name is making it kinda obvious, don't you think?"

Professor Yana nodded. "Yes. It's an old myth," he said. "It will happen to us unless we reach Utopia."

The Doctor looked clueless. "And Utopia is...?"

"Oh, every human knows of Utopia!" professor Yana said. "Were have you been?"

The Doctor made a face. "Bit of a hermit," he said with a straight face.

"A hermit with friends?" Yana asked, amused.

"Hermit's united," Susan said, grinning. "We meet up every couple of years and switch stories about caves."

Martha and Jack looked at her oddly, as did the professor and Chanto. Only the Doctor's glance seemed knowing.

"It's good fun," the Doctor continued, completely serious. "For a hermit. So, um, Utopia?"

Yana crooked his finger and led them around a computer screen that showed a navigational chart with a blinking red dot.

"The call came from across the stars, over and over again," Yana explained. "Come to Utopia."

He pointed at the red dot. "Originating from this point."

The Doctor was leaning against the console with his chin in his hands. "Where is that?"

"Oh, it's far beyond the condensate wilderness. Out towards the wild lands and the dark matter reefs. Calling us in," Yana told. "The last of the humans, scattered across the night."

The Doctor looked thoughtful. "What do you think is out there?"

"I don't know. A colony, a city, some sort of haven?" Yana said, shaking his head. "The Science Foundation created the Utopia Project thousands of years ago to preserve the mankind – to find a way of surviving beyond the reality itself. Now, perhaps they found it, perhaps not."

He looked down at the Doctor. "But it's worth a look, don't you think?"

The Doctor smiled. "Oh, yes."

He started explaining something about the signal, which Susan promptly ignored as she was too busy staring at professor Yana, who suddenly had a painful expression on his dace. Susan knew he was probably hearing the drums, and she silently cursed Rassilon and the other time lords still remaining for that.

"Professor?"

Yana startled at that and walked around them. "Right, that's enough talk," he said. "There's work to do. Now if you could leave please, thank you."

The Doctor looked at him. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine, and busy!"

"Except that rocket's not gonna fly, is it?" the Doctor said, leaning against a piece of device. "This footprint mechanism thing, it's not working."

Yana turned around. "We'll find a way!"

The Doctor continued. "You're stuck on this planet," he said. "And you haven't told them, have you. That lot out there, they think they're gonna fly."

Professor Yana sat down, dejected. "It's better to let them live in hope."

The Doctor suddenly turned a bit more cheery. "Quite right, too," he said, and went past Jack who took his coat. "I must say, professor... What was it?"

"Yana."

"Professor Yana," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "This new science is well beyond me, but all the same, a boost circuit must be a circuit which reverses the boost," he said and Susan giggled at his wording.

"So I wonder what would happen if did -" He picked up the circuit and sonicked it, before flicking it on. "- This?"

The whole system started rolling, letting out an almighty sound, and they all looked around, amazed.

"Chan –, It's working, – tho!"

Professor Yana stood up, looking around. "But how did you do that?"

"Oh, we've been chatting away, I forgot to tell you," the Doctor said with a straight face before grinning. "I'm brilliant."

"And modest too!" Susan said and laughed.

The Doctor winked at her, and they got to work.

* * *

><p>Susan helped Martha and Chanto carry more circuit boards to the main room. She didn't stay listen to Martha speak with Creet, since she didn't know if she could handle to listening to him, poor thing. She reached the Doctor and the others just after the guards had brought the TARDIS back.<p>

The Doctor came from inside, taking a long wire with him and connecting it to the footprint systems.

"Extra power," he said. "Little bit off a cheat, but who's counting?"

Susan glanced between professor Yana and the TARDIS.

The Doctor looked up. "Jack. You're in charge of the retro feeds!"

The door slid open. Martha and Chanto stepped through.

"Oh, I'm glad to see that thing," Martha said, noticing the TARDIS. Professor Yana was again looking like he was in pain, so Chanto went to him.

"Chan –, Professor,,are you all right, – tho?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he said. "I'm fine, just get on with it."

Susan glanced at Jack, who noticed her. "Connect those circuits into the spar, same as the last lot. But quicker."

Susan obliged.

'_He thinks he's so good 'coz he happens to know something about rocket science,'_ the voice inside Susan's head remarked after she had connected the last circuit. She was started and stepped back, almost tripping on a wire and crashing into a machine beside her.

"Are you all right?" the Doctor asked, noticing her pale face.

Susan looked up at him and smiled. "No, I'm fine, just... Umm, remembered something," she said.

**What the hell? First you disappear for weeks and then appear to scare the crap out of me so that I look like a fool? **Susan thought, scowling.

'_Not my fault,_' the voice said. '_You just haven't needed me lately, that's all._'

Susan scowled. **And now I do?**

'_You do remember that picture of you and the Master, don't you?_'

**Of course I do**, Susan thought. **How could I have forgotten?**

"You don't have to keep working," the Doctor said to Yana. "We can handle it."

Susan paused at that and glanced at the two of them.

"It's just a headache," Yana answered and Susan grimaced. "Just – just noise inside my head Doctor. Constant noise inside my head."

The Doctor kneeled before him. "What sort of noise?"

"It's the sound of drums," Yana said. "More and more as thought it's getting closer."

"When did it start?" the Doctor asked, frowning.

"Oh, I've had it all my life, every waking hour," the Professor answered and stood up. "Still, no rest for the wicked."

The Doctor smiled.

**So what about the picture? **Susan continued.

'_Did you honestly think that the Master would kidnap one of the Doctor's companions when he's trying to escape?_'

Now that she thought about it, it didn't really sound reasonable. **So?**

The voice sighed. '_That means that you either beg him to take you with him..._' the voice trailed off and Susan grimaced at the mental image. '_Or you go with him in a way he doesn't notice you until it's too late._'

Susan's eyes widened. **So, I have to hide inside the TARDIS and volunteer to leave with him?**

'_Yep._'

Susan sighed. Why did she keep doing these things? She had no idea.

"Professor, are you getting me?" the guard from earlier asked through the webcam.

Susan walked to stand behind the Doctor. "Doctor, I left my glasses in the TARDIS," she said. "I'll go fetch them, I'll be right back, okay?"

The Doctor nodded absentmindedly. "Yes, yes," he mumbled, not really paying attention to what she was saying.

After a while he realized what he had heard.

"What?" He turned to look back at her only to find that she was already gone.

The Doctor turned to look at Jack. "Since when has Susan ever worn glasses?" he asked, baffled.

Jack shook his head and shrugged. The Doctor frowned but was forced to let the matter go as the professor started cursing the computers.

"God sakes!" he said. "This equipment, needs rebooting all the time."

Martha walked up to him. "Anything I can do?" she asked. "I've finished that lot."

"Yes, if you could," Yana said, getting up and giving Martha his seat. "Just press the reboot key every time the picture goes out."

"Certainly sir," Martha said and grinned. "Just don't ask me to do shorthand."

The guard, Atillo, called out as the picture came back. "Are you still there?"

Yana stepped in the view of the camera.

"Ah," he said. "Present and correct. Send your man inside, we'll keep the levels down from here."

Atillo was silent for a moment, before he announced, "He's inside. And good luck to him."

Yana looked back at Jack. "Captain, keep the levels below the red."

The Doctor frowned. "Where is that room?"

Yana glanced at him. "It's underneath the rocket. Fix the couplings, and the footprint can work," he said. "But the entire chamber is flooded with stet radiation."

"Stet?" the Doctor asked, raising his eyebrows. "Never heard of it."

Yana shook his head. "You wouldn't want to," he said. "But it's safe enough. We can hold the radiation back from here."

They watched on the monitor as Jate worked on the couplings. After a while an alarm began to sound.

"It's rising!" Yana yelled. "0.2. Keep it level!"

"Yes sir!"

Jate had just fixed the second coupling, when an alarm went off.

"Chan – We're losing power, – tho!"

The Doctor rushed to sonic the controls in order to keep the levels down. "The radiation is rising!" Something was wrong.

Jack rushed to the controls. "We've lost control!"

"The chamber's going to flood," Yana said.

The Doctor frowned. He glanced back. "Jack! Override the vents!"

Jack took hold of two cables that were letting out sparks. "We can jumpstart the override!"

"Jack don't!" The Doctor warned. "It's going to flare!"

Jack hold the cables together and they flared violently. He let out a scream as they sent an electric current through his body. The others watched helplessly as he fell dead on the floor.

Martha rushed to him. "I've got him!"

Chanto pushed the cables aside. "Chan – Don't touch the cables – tho!"

Professor Yana looked down at Jack. "Oh, I'm so sorry," he said.

The Doctor put his hands in his pockets and watched, as it seemed, unperturbed. "The chamber is flooded with radiation, yes?"

Martha started mouth-to-mouth on Jack.

"Without the couplings the engines will never start!" Professor Yana said. "It was all for nothing!"

"Oh, I don't know..." The Doctor said lightly. "Martha." He pulled her up gently by her shoulders.

Martha was desperate, she was a doctor for god's sake. She couldn't just leave Jack to die! "You've got to let me try!"

"Come on, just listen to me," he said with a pointed look. "Leave him alone."

The Doctor gazed down at Jack for a moment.

"It strikes me, professor, you've got a room a man can enter without dying. Is that correct?"

Professor Yana let out a dry chuckle. "Yes," he said.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows and started to take his glasses off. "Well..."

Jack let out a huge gasp and wriggled on the floor, coming back to life.

"I've got just the man."

Jack looked up at them, breathless. "Was someone kissing me?"


	15. Meet the Fan

**A/N:** Yes, this is the moment we've all been waiting for. The moment when we finally meet the Master!

But alas, this is also the end of book 2, which means that the next chapter I'm going to post is going to start a new book. That again means that it's probably going to take a while, considering that I'm having a really busy term at school right now. But I'll try to update soon, don't you worry!

Don't forget to review, I appreciate it very much!

**Thanks** to Sammi aka Disney-Princess-In-Disguise for beta reading.

**Disclaimer:** Doctor Who and Torchwood belong to BBC. I only own the characters you don't recognize.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7: Meet the Fan<strong>

Jack and the Doctor dashed through the hallways of the silo towards the control room.

"Lieutenant, get onboard the rocket, I promise you're gonna fly!" the Doctor said to Atillo, who looked surprised to see them.

"The chamber is flooded!"

The Doctor stared straight at his eyes. "Trust me," he said. "We've found a way of tripping the system."

Atillo didn't look too pleased, but he got up form his chair and left them.

"Run!" the Doctor yelled to him and then turned back to Jack, only to notice that he was stripping his clothes. "W-what are you taking your clothes off for?"

"I'm going in!" Jack said and adjusted his suspenders over his white t-shirt.

The Doctor frowned. "Well by the looks of it, I'd say that stet radiation doesn't affect clothing, only flesh."

Jack nodded. "Well," he said and grinned, then dashed towards the chamber door. "I look good though!" He turned back at the door to look at the Doctor. "How long have you known?"

"Ever since I ran away from you," he said. "Good luck."

Jack went entered the chamber and the Doctor was left watching through the little window on the door.

"_Doctor are you there?_" Martha's voice came from the communications device.

He turned back to the computer. "Receiving, yeah. He's inside."

"_And still alive?_"

"Oh yes." The Doctor walked back to the window and leaned his forehead on it. "When did you realize?"

Jack looked up from the couplings, "Earth 1892. Got in a fight in Ellis Island. A man shot me through the heart. Then I woke up. Thought it was kinda strange," he said, then stopped to open up the third coupling. "But then it never stopped. Fell off a cliff, trampled by horses, World War I, World War II, poison, strangulation, a stray javelin… "

The Doctor winced.

"In the end, I got the message," he continued. "I'm the man who can never die. And all that time you knew."

The Doctor scratched his head. "That's why I left you behind. It's not easy even just…" he shook his head. "Just looking at you Jack, 'cause you're wrong. "

Jack grimaced. "Thanks."

The Doctor absently thought that if Susan had been there with them, she would have poked him and called him rude. But he knew that already. "You are, I can't help it. I'm a Time Lord. It's instinct. It's in my guts. You're a fixed point in time a space. You're a fact that's never meant to happen," he said and shook his head again. "Even the TARDIS reacted against you — tried to shake you off. Flew all the way to the end of the universe just to get rid of you. "

"So what you're saying is that you're, uh," Jack said and grimaced, finishing pulling up the third coupling, "prejudiced?"

The Doctor smiled. "I never thought of it like that."

Jack huffed out a laugh and grinned at him. "Shame on you."

"Yeah," the Doctor said and rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Last thing I remember back when I was mortal…I was facing three Daleks. Death by extermination. And then I came back to life." Jack started pulling up the fourth coupling and asked a little breathlessly, "What happened?"

"Rose."

Jack's expression went blank. "I thought you sent her back home."

"She came back," the Doctor said slowly. "Opened the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the time vortex."

Jack frowned at him. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"No one's ever mean to have that power," the Doctor's eyebrows rose up in thought. "If a Time Lord did that, he'd become a god, a vengeful god." He stopped for a minute, remembering the old memory somewhere in his head. "But she was human. Everything she did was so human. She brought you back to life," he said and shook his head. "But she couldn't control it. She brought you back forever."

Jack stared at him from the other side of the door, huffing out air inside the boiling room.

The Doctor leaned against the door and his expression brightened a bit. "That's something, I suppose. The final act of the Time War was life."

Jack looked down at the coupling and tried to sound nonchalant. "Do you think she could change me back?"

"I took the power out of her. She's gone, Jack. She's not just living on a parallel world, she's trapped there. The walls have closed."

Jack looked up at him and immediately noticed the change in his expression. "I'm sorry," he breathed out.

"Yeah."

"I went back to her estate, in the 90s, just once or twice," Jack said and grinned at the memory. "Watched her growing up. Never said hello, timelines and all that. "

The Doctor nodded, staring at him. "Do you want to die?"

Jack face twisted as he struggled with the coupling. "Oh, this one's a little stuck. "

The Doctor leaned his forehead against the window, staring at him pointedly. "Jack."

Jack looked up at him. "I thought I did. I dunno." He shook his head. "But this lot," he said and smiled. "You see them out here surviving and that's fantastic."

The Doctor grinned at him as Jack moved to the last coupling. "You may be out there somewhere," he said.

"I could go meet myself," Jack said as if he'd never thought about it before.

The Doctor nodded, shrugging. "Well, the only man you're ever gonna be happy with."

Jack huffed. "This new regeneration," he said, grinning. "It's kind of cheeky!"

A minute later Jack released the last coupling. "Now get out of there!" the Doctor said. "Come on!"

As Jack re-entered the control room, the Doctor called Atillo. "Lieutenant, everyone on board?" he asked.

"_Ready and waiting._"

The Doctor nodded. "Stand by! Two minutes to ignition." He hanged up and started working on the control panels.

"_Ready to launch. Outer doors sealed. Countdown commences T minus 99…98…_ "

Martha entered the room in hurry and the Doctor grinned up at her. "Ah, nearly there!" he said. "The footprint is a gravity pulse. It stamps down, the rocket shoots up. Bit primitive." A voice started beeping on the control panels and the Doctor pulled down a lever to quiet it down. "It's gonna take the both of us to keep it stable."

"Doctor," Martha said breathlessly. "It's the professor. He's got this watch. He's got a fobwatch. It's the same as yours," she continued and the Doctor turned to look at her. "Same writing on it. Same…everything."

The Doctor's face tightened. "Don't be ridiculous," he breathed out.

"I asked him," Martha said, frowning. "He said he's had it all his life. "

Jack looked up at them, raising an eyebrow. "So he's got the same watch."

Martha looked at him. "Yeah, but it's not a watch," she said. "It's this chameleon thing."

The Doctor kept pushing buttons on the control panel, flustered. "No, no, no. It's this…" he paused and grounded his teeth together. "This thing, this device, it rewrites biology, changes a Time Lord into a human."

Jack looked back at them, eyes wide.

"And it's the same watch!" Martha insisted.

The Doctor swirled his head to look at him. "It can't be," he said through his teeth. Another alarm bell started blaring and the Doctor turned around to push buttons on the other side of the panels.

Jack looked at them. "That means he could be a Time Lord," he said and pointed his finger at the Doctor. "You might not be the last one!"

"But that's brilliant, isn't it?" Martha asked.

The Doctor didn't look at her. "Yes, it is. Course it is. But which one? Brilliant, fantastic, yeah. But they died, the Time Lords. All of them, they died."

Jack looked back at him. "Not if he was human."

The Doctor looked at Martha. "What did he say, Martha?" he asked. Martha just stared at her. The Doctor advanced towards her and yelled, "_What did he say!_"

Martha stared at him, her eyes wide. "He looked at the watch like he could hardly see it. Like...that perception filter thing."

"What about now?" Doctor asked, his breath coming out in gasps. "Can he see it now?"

"If he escaped the Time War then it's the perfect place to hide," Jack said. "The end of the universe."

"Think of what the Face of Boe said," Martha gasped, remembering. "His dying words. He said…"

The realization hit the Doctor like a ton of bricks.

**Y**ou.

**A**re.

**N**ot.

**A**lone.

"Lieutenant, have you achieved velocity?" he asked Atillo through the phone. "Have you done it? Lieutenant! Have you done it?

"_Affirmative. We'll see you in Utopia._"

"Good luck," the Doctor said and hung up. Then he glanced at Jack and Martha and they dashed from the room towards the main room to get to the professor. But just as they were about to reach the main door, Yana closed it and locked it.

"Get it open!" the Doctor yelled and started sonicking the door and Jack got started on the keypad. "Get it open!"

It took them a while but they managed to get the door open, only to notice that the future kind had gotten in and they were forced to change direction. The beasts chased after them through the hallways as they ran.

They finally reached the door but it was locked too.

"Professor!" the Doctor yelled, pounding at the door. "Professor let me in! Jack, get the door open!" He started sonicking it, as the professor didn't seem to be opening it up any time soon.

"Professor!" he yelled again. "Professor, where are you? Professor! Professor, are you there? Please, I need to explain! Whatever you do, don't open that watch!"

Jack hit the keypad with the but of his revolver and the door opened.

They were too late.

Chanto was laying dead on the floor and the Professor, – no, the Master –, was leaning against the TARDIS doors, making short eye contact with the Doctor before disappearing behind the doors just as the Doctor took a step towards him.

The Doctor tried to get the door open with his key, but the Master locked it from inside. Finally, he tried his sonic screwdriver, and it failed too.

"Let me in!" the Doctor yelled, and pounded on the TARDIS doors. "Let me in!" He took a faltering step back.

"She's dead," Martha said, standing beside Chanto.

Jack was standing back at the door, trying to keep it closed. "I've broken the lock!" he yelled. "Give me a hand!" Martha went to Jack's aid.

"I'm begging you!" the Doctor yelled. "Everything's changed! It's only the two of us! We're the only ones left!"

The Doctor was starting to sound desperate. "Just let me in!" He heard the Master mutter something before a bright golden light started glowing in the TARDIS windows and the Master let out a scream. The Doctor took a step back. The Master was was regenerating.

"Doctor! You'd better think of something!" Jack yelled from the door.

The Master turned the speaker on after a while and a new voice erupted from the speakers. "Now then, Doctor—_ooh_, new voice!" he said, then tested his voice, "Hello, _hello_, hello." The Doctor could practically hear him grinning. "Anyway," the Master continued. "Why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me?" He let out a laugh. "I don't think!"

Martha looked up at the Doctor from the door while trying to desperately keep the door closed with Jack. "Hold on, I know that voice!"

"I'm asking you really properly!" the Doctor said. "Just stop! Just think!"

"Use my name."

"_Master_," the Doctor breathed out. "I'm sorry."

"Tough!" the Master yelled and started the engines.

The Doctor's face turned grim as he held out his sonic screwdriver and pushed a button.

"I can't hold out much longer, Doctor!"

The TARDIS let out protesting sounds. "Oh, no you don't!" the Master yelled. "End of the universe. Have fun," he said. "Bye bye!"

"Doctor, stop him!" Martha yelled.

Jack looked up at the TARDIS dematerializing and his eyes widened. "Doctor!" he yelled. "Susan's still inside the TARDIS!"

The Doctor swirled around to look at Jack and his face paled. Then his attention shifted as he noticed that the future kind were almost getting through the door. He rushed to Jack and Martha to take a hold of Jack's vortex manipulator.

"Hold still! Don't move!" he yelled and Jack moved again, struggling to keep the door closed. "Hold still!"

"I'm telling you, it's broken!" Jack yelled. "It hasn't worked for years!"

"That's because you didn't have me," the Doctor said, gripping Jack's arm and turning to Martha. "Martha, grab hold!" He pushed a button.

"Now!"

They disappeared.

* * *

><p>The Master laughed with maniac glee, dancing around the TARDIS control room. He had finally beaten the Doctor and now the TARDIS was his! He checked the console for his destination, and immediately noticed that the Doctor had jammed up the controls. He growled silently and pulled down a lever to start the engines again. The only option he had was to travel to the modern Earth or back to the End of the Universe. So typical Doctor. It was just always the Earth, wasn't it?<p>

A sudden noise coming from the inner rooms of the TARDIS startled him out of his musings. Was there someone else onboard with him? Perhaps a pet the Doctor had taken in after feeling sympathetic?

Quietly as he could manage, the Master made his way through the TARDIS hallways towards the source of the noise, and to his surprise found himself standing in the kitchen doorway. He blinked rapidly at the sudden bright light and brought up his hand to block it out.

What he saw struck him speechless.

A young human girl with shoulder length brown hair was fussing around the kitchen, taking a teapot out of a cupboard and filling it with water. There were many different flavoured tea bags sitting on the kitchen counter before her, as if she had trouble trying to decide which flavour to choose.

Almost as if sensing his precense, the girl suddenly stopped moving and her shoulders tensed. The moment was so brief that it was almost nonexistent, and she turned her head lazily around to look at him.

"Oh, hullo!" she said and lowered the teapot on the counter. She dried her hands and brightly continued, "You're finally here."

The Master stared.

She grinned and turned around properly to face him. "I've been expecting you," she said and giggled slightly, as if the words were particularly amusing.

The Master was startled out of his staring as he heard her giggle. He narrowed his eyes at her. "Who the hell are you?"

The girl just smiled. "I'm the Fan," she said, making the word feel like it written in capitals and turned again once again to continue her tea making. "Would you like to have some tea?"

The Master growled crossed his arms. "Since when has the Doctor been picking up children as his companions?"

The girl's shoulders shook as she huffed out a laugh. "I'm over nineteen, thank you very much. Old enough to look after myself," she said and threw an odd look at him. "So... Tea?"

He ignored the question and kept glaring at her. Then a thought struck him.

"Oh!" he said and grinned widely. "I remember you! You were the girl who said that regeneration sounded 'useful'." He spread out his hands before his new and youthful body, laughing. "Well what do you say of this?"

The girl turned around again, and stared at him form head to toes critically for a brief moment. "Dishy," she said, waving a spoon on her hand, nodding and looking at his face again. "Definitely very dishy. Although the shirt is a few sizes too big for you."

The Master rolled his eyes. "Thank you," he said and looked straight into her eyes, his tone of voice turning softer. This would be an easy task. "And now that I have your whole attention, you will do as I say and tell me what you are doing here."

The girl stared at him for a moment. Then she blinked and shook her head. "I'm sorry, but did you just try to hypnotize me?"

He frowned and looked at her closely. "What?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I've heard you're very good at that. Was that supposed to work?"

His frown deepened and he took a step closer. "I thought the Doctor only kept human companions nowadays," he said. "But I see I'm mistaken..."

The girl blinked again and tilted her head. "Excuse me?"

"You're obviously not human if you can resist my eye-to-eye hypnotism."

"Sorry to burst your bubble," she said, clearly amused, "but I'm very much human. As in born on Earth to human parents kind of human."

But she couldn't be. Could she? Only a few humans had ever resisted his hypnotism... But if she really was a human and could do that, it meant she was something out of ordinary.

He narrowed his eyes. "So you say..."

The girl shrugged. "Well, I'm pretty sure I'm human," she said. "And I have no idea why your hypnotism whatsit didn't work on me. Kind of shame, really, I've always wanted to know what it feels like."

Yes, definitely human. He rolled his eyes. Only humans were this stupid. "Why are you here?"

The girl scratched her head. "Sorry, don't really know it myself," she said. "I'm probably completely nuts for jumping on the bandwagon with the series' most evil character, but," she shrugged, "What can I say? Bad guys have their charm."

The Master snorted. "Bad guys? Series?" he asked, before he realized what else she had just implied and raised his eyebrow. "Wait... Are you saying you know who I am?"

The girl grinned. "This is going to be a long story, would you like to have that cuppa now?" she asked, but then glanced at the tea pot and at the scattered tea bags around the counter. "Scratch that, maybe the safest option would be just to stick to coffee."

"What is my name?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

The girl turned her back on him, her shoulders tense again. "So, coffee or tea?"

"Say it." He needed to be sure. If this girl knew who he was...

She slowly turned around. "You are the Master," she said, her eyebrows drawn. "Now, I know you love hearing your name said and all that, but I thought you wanted an explanation?"

He scowled and advanced towards her. "You will obey me."

The girl recoiled a few steps, but then raised an eyebrow and took an object from inside her hoodie pocket, pointing it at his face. He stopped short. "Now, don't think I came here unprepared," she said. "You know what this is?"

He snorted. "Looks like a sonic screwdriver. The Doctor is very fond of those, it's not a surprise he would give you one."

The girl grinned, not lowering the object. "Ah," she said. "But this isn't just any sonic screwdriver." She pointed it swiftly at one of the cupboard doors and pressed a button.

A laser beam came out of the little device and zapped the whole door out of existence.

Well look at that.

"It has a laser too," she said, grinning and pointed it at his face again. He took a step back. "Take one step closer to me with ill intentions and I'll hurt you, favourite character or not," she said and let out a huff of breath. "Of course, this could be proven harmless against a time lord currently in his regeneration cycle, but I don't think you're ready to test that theory, hmm?"

He scowled. How dull.

He lumped down on one of the kitchen chairs, crossing his arms and staring pointedly at her. "Favourite character? Series?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes. "What _are_ you talking about? And how do you know that much about time lords?"

The girl lowered the sonic device slightly and sighed. "Well, I suppose I could start by saying that I'm not from this universe..."


	16. Beginning of an end

She was finally going to end it.

He would no longer be able to cause suffering to anyone, ever again. She would make sure that his evil soul would rot in hell for all eternity.

She didn't care what it would take, or what ever consiquences would come of it, but she will end it.

Lucy Saxon raised her gun.

She will end it today.

* * *

><p><strong>BOOK THREE<strong>

_"Guilty. Guilty. My evil self is at that door, and I have no power to stop it."  
><em>- Cyril Hume

**Chapter 1: Beginning of an end**

Jack, Martha and the Doctor appeared on a silent alleyway, all three simultaneously groaning at the feeling of traveling through the void with just one vortex manipulator.

"Oh my head!" Martha gasped.

"Time traveling without a capsule, that's a killer," the Doctor said groaning. He looked around curiously.

Jack cracked his neck and followed the Doctor, who started leading them to the some bigger streets.

"Still," Jack said, looking around, "At least we made it. Earth, 21st century from the looks of it." He let out a laugh. "Talk about lucky."

The Doctor frowned, not looking at him. "That wasn't luck. That was me."

Martha rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms. Of course it was.

They sat down. "The moral is, if you're gonna get stuck at the end of the universe, get stuck with an ex-Time Agent and his vortex manipulator," Jack said and grinned, tapping his wrist wrap.

Martha frowned. "But this Master bloke, he's got the TARDIS, he could be anywhere in time and space." She narrowed her eyes at Doctor. "And he's got Susan."

The Doctor ignored her last comment. "No, he's here," he said looked around. He saw all the Vote Saxon campaign posters on the buildings and frowned at them. "Trust me."

"Who is he, anyway?" Martha asked. "And that voice at the end, that wasn't the professor."

"If the Master's a Time Lord, he must have regenerated."

Martha glanced at Jack. "What does that mean?"

Jack was staring into space. "Means he's changed his face, voice, body, everything," he said, his voice a bit worried. "New man."

"Then how are we gonna find him? "

The Doctor glanced at her. "I'll know him, the moment I see him," he said. "Time Lords always do."

"But hold on," Martha said, finally noticing the Vote Saxons posters too. "If he could be anyone... We missed the election." She glanced at the Doctor and Jack. They all got up. "But it can't be!"

They approached a giant screen showing footage from the latest the news.

"_Mr Saxon has returned from the Palace and is greeting the crowd inside Saxon Headquarters._"

They saw the Master walking down stairs with an entourage, a woman on his side.

"I said I knew that voice when he spoke inside the TARDIS!" Martha exclaimed. "I've heard that voice hundreds of times. I've seen him. We all have..." She swallowed. "That was the voice of Harold Saxon."

Harold Saxon waved at the cameras.

"That's him," the Doctor whispered. "He's Prime Minister."

"_Mr Saxon, this way, sir... Come on, kiss for the lady, sir._"

"The Master is Prime Minister of Great Britain." The Master kissed the woman on his side, and the Doctor's eyebrows rose up, "The Master and his _wife_."

Harold Saxon stepped forward to speak to the press.

"This country has been sick. This country needs healing. This country needs medicine. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that, what this country really needs, right now…" he said, looking straight at the camera and smiling. "... is a _Doctor_."

* * *

><p><strong>17 months earlier, somewhere on the coast of Wales<strong>

"So basically, you come from another universe where my life is a TV show," the Master said, leaning against his elbows on the table, his chin on the palm of his hand and his face blank of any expression.

"Well...", Susan started and scratched her head, "It's not actually just about you. The Doctor is more of a main character while you're his arch-nemesis."

"Right..."

"Yep."

"And at what point am I supposed to believe you?"

Susan sighed. Trying to reassure a bad guy of your allegiance was apparently a bit harder than you might have thought. "Look, I'm not lying, and the Doctor did not put me up to this," she said and put her hands up. "God knows, if the Doctor had known I was going to do this he would have been super angry with me."

The Master eyed her suspiciously. "I could just go back to the End of the Universe and throw you out for those beasts to eat."

Susan rolled her eyes. "You're so kind."

"I owe nothing to you, why should I let you come with me?"

"Well maybe this special sonic screwdriver has something to do with it?" Susan asked, raising her eyebrow and pointing the said object at him.

"Ah, that."

"Yes, 'ah, that'."

The Master eyed the object with open curiosity. "Where did you get that?"

"Well, the Doctor would say that I cheated, but..." Susan said, poking her tongue out, "If this is cheating, happen to like it very much."

That earner her a raised eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

Susan was silent for a moment, just staring at him. Then she pocketed the screwdriver and sighed. "I know you're brilliant, 'coz you are," Susan said, "We just need to get past this whole 'I'm going to try to kill you as soon as you look away' thing."

The Master opened his mouth to argue, but Susan shushed him.

"Now, let me finish!" she huffed. "You're brilliant and you're amazing, as you know. And as I happen to know that fact very well, apparently I... will decide to cheat and send the screwdriver on post back to myself in the past."

The Master frowned at her. "But then you wouldn't have a sonic screwdriver yourself."

"Here's the catch," Susan said and took out the replica sonic screwdriver, handing it to the Master, who took it. "We're going to use this model and make it into a real thing."

He looked down at the plastic thing on his hands and cocked his head. "It's plastic."

"Obviously. It's just a replica."

"Of what?"

"You know the TV series I was just talking about?" Susan asked, and as the Master nodded slightly, she continued, "This is one of the Doctor's future screwdrivers after that silver one get's broken."

"Well..." the Master said, blinking.

"Proof enough for you?"

The Master rolled his eyes at her impatience. "I guess," he said, placing the replica on the table and crossing his arms defiantly. "But how are you going to turn this thing into a real sonic screwdriver?"

Susan smiled sheepishly. "Well, that's kinda why I was so sure I was going to meet you. You see, I'm not that good with electronics so I was hoping..." she trailed off.

The Master sighed wearily. "Very well, I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks!"

The brilliant alien across from her raised an eyebrow. "But you're going to have to help me out with something too."

Susan clapped her hands. "Right!" she said. "What do you need? I've got a great alias for you in case you want to run for the Prime Minister you know, or maybe-"

The Master silenced her with a look. Susan squeaked and shut her mouth.

"First things first..." the Master said, grinning just a little bit too widely. "Shut your mouth and make me a cup of coffee."


	17. Dresses, Choices and Timelines

**A/N: **Sorry it took me so long to update. I've had this chapter written down for ages now, but I was hesitant about publishing it because it's kind of short... Also, since I was in England for 8 days at the end of my summer holidays, I really didn't have the chance to even properly think about this story.

Anyway, I hope you like it. Don't forget to (be awesome) and review!

Huge thanks go to my two beta readers,** Fendra** and **Disney-Princess-In-Disguise**.

**Disclaimer:** Doctor Who and Torchwood belong to BBC. I only own the characters you don't recognize.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2: Dresses, Choices and Timelines<strong>

Susan scratched her head as she stepped through the doorway into the kitchen. She'd been sleeping exceptionally well that night, even though she knew that there was a possibility that the Master might decide to kill her in her sleep. She just didn't really think he'd do that, because she could be proven to be a quite valuable hostage if he ever happened to need one.

"Morning," Susan said to the Master, who was sitting at the table, working on changing the replica into a real thing. She raised here eyebrows at the clothes he was wearing; he hadn't changed them at all. "Have you been working on that thing all night?"

"Yes," the Master answered shortly, without looking up from his work.

Susan made a new batch of coffee and sat at the chair next to him. "How long do you reckon it's going to take you to make it work?"

"Not very long."

Susan cocked her head. "Well, do you have any plans then?" she asked, and sipped her coffee.

The Master stopped working and glanced up at her, frowning. "Plans?"

Susan made a face. "Wow, I really need to learn how to make caffeinated drinks properly," she said, abandoning the cup of coffee on the table. Then she looked up at the Master, raising her eyebrow at his questioning tone. "You usually have some kind of a plan to beat the Doctor and enslave the humankind or something. Got any thoughts on that?"

He frowned at her sarcastic tone. "I've got a few ideas, yes," he admitted, eyeing her carefully before looking back down at the sonic screwdriver. "But I'm not going to spill them to _you_."

Susan rolled her eyes and sighed. How was she going to explain this to the Master so that he would understand?

"Look," Susan said, frowning slightly. "If you don't count the Doctor, you're my all time favourite character..." she paused for a moment. "Well, I guess it's a person now in this TV show... Universe... World... Well you know what I mean!"

The Master just huffed at her, once again not lifting his gaze from his work.

Susan scratched the back of her head. "What I mean to say is this; I can't exactly go changing the timelines. Basically I have no idea what would happen if I changed things too much, and besides, I kinda _want_ to have an advantage over this universe," she mused and shook her head. "That way I'll probably have a few tricks in my sleeve if I get into a tight spot."

It was silent for a few moments.

The Master looked up and saw her gazing at him questioningly.

"Yes, yes, I get it, I'll let you help with my plans," the Master growled at her and rolled his eyes. "Now hand me that small screwdriver!"

Susan flashed a smile at him and handed him the object in question. She watched him working for a few minutes, before he brought the sonic screwdriver on his eyelevel and stared at it hard. After a defeating silence he nodded and put it back on the table.

"Finally, it's done."

Susan eyed the sonic screwdriver for a moment before a thought came to her. "Did I forgot to tell you I want you to put isomorphic controls on it?"

The Master raised an eyebrow. "What, don't you trust me?"

"Honey, you might be my favourite but right now, I trust you as far as I can throw you," Susan said, an amused smile lingering on her lips, "And that's a very small distance."

* * *

><p><strong>3 months later<strong>

Susan opened and closed an iron gate and walked across the front yard of a beautiful white house, a happy spring in her step. She fumbled with the keys for a moment before unlocking the front doors and stepping inside. Not bothering to take her converse shoes off she walked though the enterance hall into the large sitting room, and threw her leather bag back on the beige sofa.

"Guess what I just got in the mail!" Susan yelled and waved letter in the air. She heard some noise coming from the dining room so she went in through a doorway to the kitchen and then through the kitchen door.

"They accepted me! They bloody accepted me!" Susan yelled again, before noticing that the Master was not alone in the dining room.

A woman with long blonde hair was sitting with him at the table, going over some papers.

It was Lucy Saxon.

"Oh."

They were both staring at her questioningly, and the Master raised an eyebrow. "As you can see, Susan, I have some company right now."

Susan ignored him and smiled thinly at the blonde. "Who are you?"

The Master and Lucy both stood up and he coughed slightly. "Lucy, this is my sister Susan Friberg. Susan, meet Lucy Cole. She's here about my new book."

Susan just nodded.

"It's nice to meet you," Lucy said, smiling. "I've heard a lot about you from your brother."

"Have you now?" Susan asked, raising an eyebrow. "Did he also happen to tell you that I'm currently trying to get into an university?"

Lucy looked a bit hesistant. "He did mention it, yes."

Susan smiled thightly, her good mood pretty much gone for now. "Well, I just got an unconditional acceptance letter from Oxford University."

"That's great!" Lucy said, grinning at her. "You must be a very talented student."

Susan traded glances with the Master, who was smirking at her. "Well..."

Lucy started arranging the papers on the desk. "Excuse me, but I absolutely have to leave now, I've got so much preparing to do." She glanced from Harold Saxon to Susan. "But Susan, you absolutely must join Harold and me for dinner tonight at ours! Mummy will be making her famous roasted lamb."

Susan narrowed her eyes slightly. "Yeah, sure, why not."

"Spelendid!" Lucy said, smiling and walking towards the door. "But I must dash now. Bye, Harold, bye Susan!"

They stood in the dining room for some time in silence.

"I don't like her," Susan said.

"Why not?"

She frowned. "She's annoying."

The Master rolled his eyes. "She's not."

"Why was she even here?"

"She's in publishing. She wanted to know some details about my book covers and outlook before they made the final print," he smirked. "And besides, I think she likes me."

Susan crossed her arms defiantly. "And luckily for you, her father just happens to be one of the most influencential people in Great Britain."

"Luck had nothing to do with it."

Susan rolled her eyes. "Sure sure," she muttered and crossed the dining room to open a door into a rather large closet. The TARDIS was inside, glowing slightly in the dark. She opened the door with her key and went inside. She stopped just after the doorway.

"I'll just start packing now then," Susan said, her back to the Master. "But still, please have the decency to tell me if she moves in with you or something," she continued and grimaced. "I don't want to come here for holidays and find her lingering about the house."

"Of course," the Master answered, amused by her cross attitude. He followed her inside the TARDIS. "But you still have to join us for dinner."

Susan snorted and went to check the readings on the main panel.

The Master crossed his arms and leaned against one of the columns and smirked. "And because it's a formal occasion, you'll have to wear a dress."

Susan's shoulders stiffened and she turned her head to look back at him. "You're lying."

"I'm afraid not."

Susan groaned and her whole posture melted as she slumped against the TARDIS control panels. "I hate pretending to be your sister. All those fancy parties I have to attend..." she moaned, burying her head in her hands.

"It was your idea," the Master said, stiffling a laugh.

"Yeah, and I'm starting to regret it," she huffed. "I should've just chosen to pretend to be your wife or something."

The whole control room went silent, almost as if even the TARDIS sensed something was wrong.

SHIT.

She did not just say that.

Susan didn't even dare to breath as she peeked between her fingers to look at him. His face was expressionless.

"Why didn't you?"

Susan stared at him for a moment, then averted her eyes and stood up properly, crossing her arms. "Well... time lines and all that...," she mumbled.

"What does that mean?" The Master asked, sounding annoyed.

Susan took a quick glance at him. He was frowning.

"That Lucy Cole," Susan said, looking down and nervously scratching her arm. "I wasn't joking when I asked you to inform me if she moves in with you."

"Oh."

Susan smiled thinly. "It's really not my place to stop things like that from happening." Even though she wanted to, she almost added, but closed her mouth with a snap. Her look didn't go unnoticed by the Master, who just raised a questioning eyebrow.

Damn her and her stupid obsession with bad guys.

"So, are you taking up the offer?"

Susan glanced at him with wide eyes, starled from her thoughts. "Huh?"

"Oxford University," the Master said.

"Oh, right," Susan said. "The first term starts in September," she said and shrugged. "I'll probably hire a room from the student accommodation."

The Master nodded. After a brief silence walked to the doorway to leave, but stopped and looked over his shoulder at the last minute.

"Well, you better start looking for that dress then," he said, smirking.

Susan groaned.


	18. The Dinner Party

**Chapter 3: The Dinner Party**

"You know I hate you, right?"

The Master glanced at Susan, who was sitting on the front seat of their car. "I think you might have mentioned it a few times, yes," he said and turned his eyes back to the traffic.

"I could be wearing comfortable clothes and blogging on Tumblr right now," Susan said, crossing her arms and slouching down in her seat. "I could be writing a funny post about how annoying my stupid politician 'brother' is. Instead I'm going to some stuffy dinner party dressed in this horrible thing," she said, gesturing to her blue evening dress.

The Master rolled his eyes. "You've been spending way too much time on that stupid website recently. It's healthy for you to do some socializing once in a while."

Susan turned to glare at him. "For your information, Tumblr is the most awesome site ever," she said. "And besides, I do socialize with people," she said, then grinned and added,"On the internet."

The Master sighed and decided not to answer.

"Normally, you know," Susan said after a minute of silence, "I'd be currently blogging about how awesome show Doctor Who is and maybe celebrating the fact that it has the most awesome villain in the history of television," she mused, "but luckily for you I can't really talk about that on Tumblr because nobody in this universe has ever heard of Doctor Who."

The Master stared at her from the corner of his eye. "You're serious." He raised an eyebrow.

Susan just shrugged. "That's what Tumblr is for. Giggling about the fact that your favourite characters or / and actors are super mega foxxy awesome hot."

The Master rolled his eyes again and he might have gripped the steer wheel a bit tighter. "What _do _you talk about on that website now then? If this 'Doctor Who' isn't an option."

Susan raised an eyebrow. "You know, I could literally hear those quotation marks," she grinned and shrugged. "Well, you know, the usual stuff. Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes... Good thing those are still things in this universe, I'd probably be bored to death otherwise." She paused.

"Did you know that in addition to the fact that Doctor Who isn't a thing here, Supernatural also isn't a thing here?" she said. "I mean that would be so cool if the Winchester Brothers were actually real and I could go to the USA and maybe hunt them down and then I'd hug Dean and talk to them and then I'd make him call Cas and I'd hug him too 'coz he's such a cute little angel and..."

He regretted even asking.

* * *

><p>Susan brushed her dress one more time as she stood beside the Master, waiting for someone to open the front door for them. He was dressed in a very smart suit and a tie, looking as handsome as ever. She really envied him; he could look hot even while wearing 70's clothes. And didn't she know it. She'd practically almost drooled after John Simm ever since she realised that he was the same guy who'd been Sam Tyler in Life on Mars.<p>

"You're not going to ruin this opportunity for me," the Master hissed at her, "You're going to be on your best behavior. No inappropriate jokes, and absolutely no talking about your stupid obsessions."

Susan raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't call them stupid. You're part of them, you know."

The Master just gave her a look that made it clear what he thought of attempt of joking.

The doors opened, and they were welcomed inside by a butler. Susan traded amused looks with the Master, but she kept otherwise silent and followed the butler to a dining room.

Lucy and her family were waiting for them.

"Ah, good evening," an older man with greying hair, who Susan assumed was Lucy's father, said cheerily. He had a very clear English accent. "You must be Harold Saxon," he said and shook the Master's hand. "I've heard much about you from my daughter."

"As I have of you," 'Harold' said, smiling charmingly. "Although not entirely just from your daughter, I must confess."

The man let out a laugh. "I'd expect so, I'd expect so..." he grinned. Then his gaze turned to Susan, who was standing awkwardly and trying not to look too out of place. "And this is your lovely sister? Susan, was it?"

Susan stepped forward and gave him a smile. "Yes."

"I'm Charles Cole; it's a pleasure to meet you."

They shook hands. "Susan Friberg, and the pleasure is all mine."

Charles raised his eyebrows. "You're married?"

"God no!" Susan's eyes widened and she glanced at the Master, who looked amused.

"... It's just that the different last name is a bit confusing," Charles admitted. "I thought you were siblings?"

The Master coughed. Their eyes turned to him.

"Yes, we are, but only on through our parent's marriage. Susan is actually my step mother's daughter from an earlier marriage."

"That's quite all right then," Charles smiled and turned back to Susan. "Sorry for prying! But I think the ladies are waiting for us in the dining room. May I?" he playfully offering his arm to Susan.

Susan giggled and slipped her arm through his. "Of course, kind sir."

Lucy Cole and her mother, Vivian, were waiting in the dining room for them. They quickly made acquaintances and then took seats around the large table, Susan sitting next to the Master, Lucy sitting across from him and her parents sitting at the both ends of the table.

They silently started on the appetizers when Charles decided he'd had enough of the silence.

"So, Susan, I've heard you grew up in Finland," he asked, peering at her across the table.

"That's right," Susan said hesitantly.

"You speak very good English though," Charles continued, "How long have you been living in England then?"

"I moved here when I was in secondary school," she said, having memorized her cover up many times before. "That's when my mom decided to re-marry, you see."

"Ah, of course."

"Then later when they both..." she bit her lip, trying to look sad even though she was inwardly rolling her eyes at the sob story, "When the accident happened, Harry was kind enough to take care of me even though we're not even blood related."

"Harold is so kind, isn't he daddy?" Lucy said, throwing a disgustingly sweet smile at the Master's direction. "He's just the kind of person everyone admires, isn't he?"

Susan wanted to frown but she smiled instead, elbowing her 'brother'. "He is, isn't he?" she giggled and ignored how the Master rolled his eyes. "I don't know what I would do without him."

Charles smiled at them and the dinner continued with light chatter. The Master and Charles discussed some politics, while Susan made chit-chat with Lucy's mother about her upcoming studies at the University.

After the dinner was over, they went to the sitting room and the same butler who had opened their door brought them a few choices of wine to taste from.

"Shall I pour you a glass my dear?" Charles asked her, holding a bottle of red wine.

Susan snorted and waved her hand. "No, I don't really care for alcohol, sorry."

"Really?" His brow furrowed. "You don't drink?"

"Susan has chosen the path of a teetotaler," the Master smirked from his seat on the armchair, holding a glass of wine and sipping it. "She reasons that if alcohol has any effects on your brain cells, then she wants to keep as good care of them as she can."

Susan frowned at his tone. As if being a teetotaler was somehow a bad thing.

Charles frowned, but then smiled. "Well, I guess that is a good reason then," he poured some for himself. "Perhaps you'd like some mineral water then?"

Susan sighed in relief. "Yes, please."

* * *

><p>"Well that was perfectly awkward," Susan sighed, slumping down in the front seat. "I have no idea why Lucy even invited me. Why the hell would she want to introduce <em>me<em> to her parents?"

"Some people just do things from the goodness of their hearts," the Master smirked at her. "Maybe she saw that you don't go out that much."

Susan threw a faint glare at him. "And you'd know everything about doing things from the goodness of your heart," she snorted. "You never do anything without at least two ulterior motives."

"Three, actually," he mused, watching the road and not really paying attention to her.

"Three, then," she rolled her eyes. "All I'm saying is this: why would she want me to know her father when she doesn't even know you properly?"

"We've known each other for almost a month," he said, raising an eyebrow. "I think she counts that as knowing someone."

Susan made a face. "Well she certainly does _not _know you," she said. "In fact, I'm almost certain that if she did know you at this point like I do, she would be running away screaming."

He turned to look at her. "Still, oddly enough, you are not. Even though you know about my plans."

Susan swallowed and shifted her gaze to the dark road. "Yeah, well, it's different for me," she muttered and crossed her arms, hugging herself from the cold. She really should've brought a jacket with her. "I've known you longer than you even knew I existed."

"But have you really?"

Susan glanced at him and was a bit taken back by his intense stare. "What?"

"Do you really _know _me?"

Susan bit her lip. "I think I do," she said. Although sometimes, she wished she didn't.


	19. Living with an evil psychopath

**A/N: **Finally, another chapter!

Remember to review, reviews make me very happy. :3

Thank you _Disney-Princess-In-Disguise_ for beta reading.

**Disclaimer:** Doctor Who and Torchwood belong to BBC. I only own the characters you don't recognize.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: Living with an evil psychopath<strong>

Susan didn't really want to think about what she was doing. She'd joined up and gone gallivanting with the equivalent of the bloody Dark Lord. She especially didn't want to think about what was going to happen when the Doctor found out.

So she didn't think about it. She put the thought in a box, and buried it six feet underground in the most darkest corner of her mind, and promptly pretended it didn't exist.

She didn't really even talk with the Master often enough to be reminded that he was an evil psychpath with a plan to conquer the world. He had been way too busy with his book in the last month, and before that, with the Archangel Network, which had been unveiled a month earlier, so Susan couldn't even help him with that anymore. The project so far had been succesful, and Harold Saxon had earned a lot of praise from the public and the goverment alike.

They had of course tested it on several people (illegally) beforehand, and they found out, to surprise of both Susan and the Master, that Susan was uneffected by the unconsious sound. The Master of course had been instantly curious.

"Seems like you have some kind of a barrier around your mind that keeps out every form of hypnotism," he had said, staring deeply in her eyes and standing way too close.

Susan blinked, feeling uncomfortable.

"It certainly does awake the question of your race again..." he muttered, narrowing his eyes at her. "Are you absolutely positive that you're fully human?"

Susan let out a snort. "C'mon, there isn't even any aliens in my universe, how could I be anything else?"

"Well, maybe you just don't know about the aliens yet."

"Right," Susan said and shook her head. "But don't you think that if I were an alien, somebody would have noticed? I mean, there's got to be more differences between humans and aliens than just some stupid psychic shield."

The Master raised an eyebrow. "I'm noticing now," he said slowly. "Do you have unusual things in your medical history?" he asked with a thoughful look on his face.

"Nope," Susan said. "Also, I'm just an average student in maths and sciences, so I'm definitely not a genius or anything."

"Normal humans don't have that kind of mental barriers around them. Are you absolutely sure this is the first time something like this has come up?"

"Yep," Susan said, nodding.

"So no strange sounds, or smells, anything? You've never noticed any difference about your eyesight or anything else, compared to other humans?"

'_Yes, there's nothing wrong with you_,' the voice remarked with a sarcastic tone. '_You're just hearing strange voices in your head, nothing to worry about_.'

Susan ignored the voice and hesitated for a second. Somehow she felt like she shouldn't tell him about the voice. He'd just think she was crazy. Because, c'mon, he did hear voices himself, and he was pretty insane. But at least he had a proper reason to be so.

She swallowed. "Nope, nothing."

The Master took a step back, but was still staring at her. "No strange insticts? Urges to eat strange foods or do strange things?"

"Now you're just making that up," Susan said and rolled her eyes. "I'm a fangirl, I do strange things all the time. I've even eaten fish fingers and custard once because it seemed like a cool thing to do." Not to mention the Doctor had done it.

He eventually let the matter drop but Susan could feel him keeping an eye out for any stranger behauvior.

Now the Master had practically forgotten about Susan, because he'd found Lucy Cole and he was consentrating on wooing her and his politician father. They had even started officially dating, which made Susan feel sick. She didn't like Lucy at all, and it wasn't just because she knew what she was going to do at the end of the Year that Never Was. No, she didn't like her personality at all.

'_Maybe you're just jealous,_' the voice sniped. '_Because you know they're going to get married._'

**I am not jealous**, Susan thought and scowled. She was sprawled upon her bed and staring at the ceiling.** She's just annoying.**

'_Right_,' the voice chuckled. '_And it has nothing to do with the fact that you're completely smitten with the man she's dating_.'

Susan jumped up like the bed was burning her. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Crap.

She hoped he hadn't heard that.

**You have no right**, she thought clenching her teeth. **You're a stupid voice living inside my brain. You have no right to tell me what I feel. I am not in love with him.**

The voice sounded amused. '_I didn't say you're in love with him._'

"Who are you yelling at?" the Master asked, his face peering from the doorway. Of course he'd heard.

Susan scowled at him. Damn his stupid cute face and his cheery, although a bit creepy, voice.

Damn.

She was so smitten with him. '_Told you so_.'

When realised that she was clenching her fists and relaxed, taking a deep breath. "Ever heard of a thing called knocking?" she asked calmly, narrowing her eyes.

"Yes," the Master said, stepped fully inside her room, looking around curiously. He raised an eyebrow at a huge Harry Potter poster on her wall but made no comment.

Susan turned to face him. "Might want to try it sometimes," she said sweetly.

The Master shrugged. "Just wanted to know if you'd kidnapped someone and were tortuting them."

Susan let out a laugh and waved her hand. "Naah, just... Umm.. Talking to myself."

"You do that often then?" He raised an eyebrow.

"..." She grimaced. "Yeah, well, pretty often. Helps me think more clearly." Not.

"Right," he said, clearly not believing her lie. "Anyway, we're having a party with the crew from publishing since tomorrow is the big day. Thought you might want to join us tonight."

"It's finished already?" Susan crossed her arms. "Is that an invitation or an order?"

"You know the answer to that."

Ugh. She hated parties. "What time is it?"

"Half past eight. Dress smartly," he smirked. "No converses."

"You're evil," she pouted. "Although you probably already knew that."

* * *

><p>Time passed extremely slowly for Susan, who had little to do while she was waiting for the first school term to start. In April, the Master published his autobiography, <em>Kiss me, kill me<em>, and it was a huge succes. People were falling in love with him all over the world. Somehow, it made Susan feel a little bit better about the fact that she liked him too. And by the time it was May, Susan was so bored that she started taking guitar lessons. At least then she had something to do.

Then, in the summer, almost two months before she was supposed to leave for the University, she came home and found Lucy and Harold making out on the sofa.

"Ewww!" she yelled, covering her eyes and turning her back on them. "I did not need to see that."

Lucy got up quickly and tried to straighten her hair and makeup. "I'm sorry," she said, actually sounding like she was sorry, "We didn't think you'd be home so early."

The Master just looked bored, slumped on the sofa like he didn't have a care in the world. "Didn't you have your guitar lesson today?"

"It was cancelled," Susan muttered, peeking through her eyes at them and letting out a sigh of relief as she saw that Lucy was no longer sitting on his lap. "Thought I could come home early and make some dinner..." she trailed off.

"Oh, that's a wonderful idea," Lucy said. Her face was still red.

Susan tried to glare at her but suddenly felt too tired to do so. "You're staying over again?"

"If it's okay with you..." Lucy said hesitantly.

Susan shrugged. "Whatever," she said. "You can even move in if you want to."

"Really?" Lucy said, her eyes widening, and she glanced at the Master. "We were just talking about that the other day and I got the impression that..."

The Master narrowed his eyes at Susan. "If Susan doesn't care, then why not?"

Lucy Cole smiled.

Susan felt something like dread at the bottom of the stomach. "Great," she said numbly. "I'll start packing then."

That got a reaction out of the Master. "What?" he said, confused.

"I was just looking over some flats in Oxford the other day," she said and smiled. She was happy for them. Happy happy happy. Not at all feeling like stabbing Lucy in the back. "And I stumbled upon this really nice looking apartment, and the rent wasn't too much. I can just call them and move in next week," she shrugged. "No reason for me to stay here and bother you two."

"Oh, no, you don't have to do that," Lucy said, gasping dramatically. "I wouldn't want you to feel like you need to leave your home because of me!"

Susan looked at her, face impassionate. "Seriously, I think this is the best solution," she said. "I'm going to move out anyway, so why not go now? I'll have the chance to get used to it before school starts. And I'll have my room here anyway for holidays," she said with a pointed look at the Master.

"I don't have any say in what you do," the Master said, shrugging. "You're an adult."

"Great," Susan repeated. "I'm going packing now, see you later."

She climbed up the stairs and suddenly felt like a coward.

* * *

><p>Her flat wasn't small. It was just perfect for one person. It had a small kitchen, a living room, bathroom, and a bedroom.<p>

But despite the fact that she had taken almost all of her stuf with her and bought a lot of furniture and decorated it during the two months, by the time school started, it still felt very empty.

* * *

><p>Three months later she got the phone call she'd been dreading.<p>

"We're getting married on the 20th," the Master said over the phone. "I expect you to attend the wedding."

"Sure," Susan said. "Great."

"You don't sound too surprised."

"That's because I'm not."

After the wedding, time moved forward way too quickly. She really busy with school, but she still had to attend the party just before her Christmas holidays when her 'brother' was announced as the Minister of Defense. Then it was Christmas.

She'd just arrived on the taxi and was dragging her suitcase inside, when she felt nauseated. She left the suitcase in the hall and stumbled inside. Lucy saw her and said something, but she didn't hear a word. Something was wrong.

The feeling grew stonger when she stepped into the kitchen and headed to the back room. That's where the Master stopped her.

"Don't I even get a hello?" he said, grinning.

Susan just stared at him, feeling sick. "What have you done?" she gasped out and pushed past him.

She opened the door to the the Tardis and promptly felt like her insides were being ripped off. She had to lean against the doorway as she doubled over, holding her stomach.

"No," she gasped.

He'd turned the Tardis into a paradox machine.

"Something wrong?" the Master asked behind her, his voice oddly gleeful.

"You didn't," she said, clenching her eyes shut. "Why... Can't you feel it?"

"I can, and it's the feeling of the future," the Master said, coming to stand beside her and patting the Tardis door gently. "This is the future."

Susan grimaced. She'd promised to stop him, but she'd been a coward. She'd forgotten all about his plans concerning the Tardis and just ran away. She felt terrible.

"You're a time lord!" she said between clenched teeth and mustered the strenght to look up at him. "Can't you feel how she's suffering? How can you just stand there and not be affected?" she yelled, "Hell, I'm a human and I still felt incredibly sick as soon as I came here!"

The Master raised an eyebrow. "It's not my Tardis," he said. "I don't have a bond with it like the Doctor does," he cocked is head. "And apparently you."

Well shit.


	20. Run

**Chapter 5: Run**

Finally the long awaited day arrived. The day when Susan knew that her younger counterpart was going to get the parcel in the mail and leave for the Hub. Susan had hired a man from a postal agency to deliver the package to her former residence. Then she simply waited until her younger self left the bookstore, and followed.

With the sonic screwdriver she hacked into the security cameras in the tourist office, and made sure that she had the right moment.

Her eyes followed the camera footage and she saw younger self talking with Ianto and Tosh. Susan bit her lip. She hadn't decided yet what to do. Should she go and meet them after Jack left, or should she just disappear and let them know nothing?

And where the heck had that Angel come from? She let out a frustrated sigh and looked down. That's when she noticed the Cardiff Castle leaflet, and there, on the front page, was a picture of a stone angel.

Her hands gripped the leaflet and she swore. She frantically looked around for more copies, but couldn't find any.

She ran her fingers over the paper and noticed that it wasn't smooth like the leaflets usually were. It had been printed out on a normal sheet of paper. Was it a prototype then? Had Ianto been making some new leaflets to their office to use as props?

She swore again, and looked around. Had the Angel gotten loose already? She took the paper, set it on fire and dropped it into the bin. She watched the flames devour it and sighed. Where the bloody hell did Ianto get his hands on that picture?

Susan glanced at the monitor, and saw a silhouette of an Angel on the corridor screen. That's when her past self opened the door and walked forwas. She saw her adjusting her shoulder bag and then looking up. Her eyes widened and she blinked. It was over so fast that if Susan hadn't known to expect it, she wouldn't haven notice it happening. She let out a curse and promptly deleted the footage form the computers, then shut the corridor camera off.

She pushed secret button and the door opened. She ran inside, her shoulder bag swinging and the screwdriver propped in her hand. When the Angel was once again facing her, Susan pointed the tip of the sonic screwdriver at the thing and pressed the red button.

_ZAP_! The Angel turned into dust.

Well. That was easy.

She took out a shovel and a brush from her bag and collected the remainings of the angel on the shovel. From there she very carefully dropped the dust into a small wooden box, closed the lid and locked it with a key. The complicated locking mechanism made a strange sound as it secured the whole thing.

Susan sighed. Well, she was obviously going to need to have a talk with the Torchwood team again.

About two hours later, after a nice lunch and a salad, Susan stepped into the tourist office and wasn't surprised to find it empty. She opened the sealed door with a flicker of the sonic screwdriver and stepped into the lift at the end of the corridor. Her arrival inside the Hub was announced by the cog-wheel door's noisy alarm.

"Jack?" Gwen's voice rang out.

Susan stepped fully out of the doorway and saw Toshiko, Owen and Ianto with her, standing around the monitors. Their faces fell when they saw her.

"Sorry to disappoint," Susan said. "But you're not going to see Jack again in a while."

"Susan?" Ianto asked, looking at her with a disbelieving expression on his face.

"Yup," Susan said and smiled. "It's been a long time since I saw you."

Owen's eyebrows rose. "But we saw you just a few hours ago," he pointed out.

"Do you know where Jack is?" Gwen asked, cutting off Susan's response to Owen.

Susan eyed her for a moment. "Yes. But it's not my place to tell you," she said. "He'll come back though," she added quickly.

Ianto was clearly disappointed, as were all of them.

"Anyway, that's not why I'm here," Susan said and lifted up the wooden box to eye level. "I caught something very dangerous roaming around your corridor, after it zapped me back in time to the 20th century."

Gwen let out a laugh, and the other smiled, until they all saw her stoic expression and their smiles faded.

"Wait, seriously?" Owen asked. "In our corridor?"

Susan nodded and glanced at Ianto. "I need you to put this thing in the archives," she said. "The creature is called a weeping angel. It takes the form of an angel statue, and when someone's looking at it, it can't move. But these things are incredibly fast, and they can get you in a blink of an eye."

Ianto took the box from her.

"But how are you back here?" Gwen asked. "If they got to you?"

Susan shrugged. "I crossed paths with another time traveler," she said. "However, that's not important right now. I need you to put the box somewhere safe where nobody will try to open it ever again."

"How did you kill it though?" Ianto asked, looking down at the box.

Susan blinked at him. "What do you mean?"

"You said it turned into a statue. You can't kill stone," he clarified. The rest of the team stared at him, then nodded in unison.

"Yeah well, you can't kill it but you can destroy it. I turned it into dust with a laser," she said and shrugged. "The box where I trapped it is full of mirrors, so it's basically always looking at itself. It can never move again."

Owen laughed. "Only you would've come up with that! That's completely ridiculous!"

"Yeah well, it hasn't gotten out yet has it?" she said and raised an eyebrow. "I killed it over two hours ago and the thing hasn't moved at all."

"How do you know?" Toshiko asked.

"You're not the only people with advanced technology these days," Susan said and smirked at her curious expression.

Ianto clearly had gotten what he needed, because he just nodded and went to do his job. Owen stared at her for a few seconds, then huffed and continued doing whatever he was doing on the computer.

Susan let out a sigh and went to stand next to Toshiko.

"Can you do me a favour Tosh?" she asked.

Toshiko looked away from the computer screen. "What do you need?"

"I need you to search every possible database with the word angel and statue, or stone. If you find any pictures of an angel statue that is weeping into its hands, delete them immediately. They all need to be deleted from the records, permanently."

"Why?"

"Because an picture of an angel becomes an angel itself," Susan said grimly and stared at the screen. "We're not gonna make that mistake again. Not when I know this much."

* * *

><p>She had to leave soon after explaining the Angels to the Torchwood team. When they asked where she was going, she just shrugged and told them that she had other things to do, people to save, all that stuff.<p>

Because the summer holidays had already started for her, she took the train and went back to their house in London, where she had left all of her stuff after coming back from Oxford. She still got that disgusting feeling at the bottom of her stomach every time she went back to the house, but it wasn't as bad as the first time.

"I'm back, is anyone here?"

Nobody answered, so she went to her room, flopped down on her bed and stared at the ceiling. After a few hours she heard the Master and Lucy arriving home. She didn't bother going to greet them, because she knew that the Master was going to come and see her anyway.

"Busy day today, was it?" the Master asked from the doorway.

"You already know so why are you asking?" she said.

"What business did you have in Torchwood of all places?" he asked again, now more firmly.

"Just took care of something," she said got up a bit too look at him. "Don't worry, I didn't warn them or anything. I'm not _that_ stupid."

"Good."

"But they'll still going to fight back, I hope you know that," she muttered. "Especially Gwen. She's going to be a pain in the arse if you don't get rid of them fast."

"I'm already dealing with them."

"Wild-goose chase in the Himalayas?" Susan said and snorted. "How original."

"They're going anyway," he said and shrugged. "I'm the the Minister of Defence after all. And tomorrow, the Prime Minister."

"I know," Susan sighed and got up, properly sitting up on the bed. "So how is the planning going? Everything ready for the day after tomorrow?"

"Everything is set," he said, amused. "They'll never see it coming."

* * *

><p><strong>Two days later<strong>

"The Master is Primer Minister of Great Britain," the Doctor said incrediously. "The Master and his _wife_."

They all watched as the Master spoke to the nation and gave a clear sign that he knew the Doctor was watching.

"What about Susan?" Jack asked. "He has Susan."

The Doctor frowned. "I don't get why she didn't see this coming," he said and rubbed his ear. "She usually knows about these things."

Martha sighed. "Well, we can't just stand here!" she said. "C'mon, let's go to my flat and find out who this Harold Saxon is supposed to be."

They all started running.

"Home," Martha said quickly as an introduction as they went through her door. The Doctor took off his jacket and threw it onto the couch.

"What have you got? Computer, laptop, anything. Jack, who are you phoning?" He frowned and put on his glasses. "You can't tell anyone we're here."

"Just some friends of mine, but there's no reply," Jack said, confused.

"Here you go," Martha said, handing her laptop to the Doctor. "Any good?"

Before the Doctor had time to reply, Jack grabbed the computer from him. "I can show you the Saxon websites. He's been around for ages."

"That's so weird though," Martha said. "It's the day after the election. That's only four days after I met you. "

"We went flying all around the universe while he was here all the time," the Doctor said, scratching his head while Jack worked on the computer.

Martha put her hands to her hips. "You going to tell us who he is?"

The Doctor glanced at her. "He's a Time Lord."

"What about the rest of it?" she said, bemused. "I mean, who'd call himself the Master?"

"That's all you need to know." Martha's shoulders slumped and she pouted, but the Doctor was more focused on the laptop. "Come on, show me Harold Saxon."

Martha noticed that she had a message on the answering machine, and turned it on.

"_Martha, where are you? I've got this new job. You won't believe it. It's weird. They just phoned me up out of the blue. I'm working for -_"

It was Tish. She really didn't have time to listen to her so she turned it off. "Oh, like it matters," she muttered.

They watched a few videos on Harold Saxon's website.

"Former Minister of Defence. First came to prominence when he shot down the Racnoss on Christmas Eve," Jack clarified and looked at the Doctor. "Nice work, by the way."

"Oh, thanks," the Doctor said absently.

"But he goes back years!" Martha said and walked to the computer. "He's famous. Everyone knows his story", she said. "Look. Cambridge University, Rugby blue. Won the Athletics thing. Wrote a novel, went into business, marriage, everything. He's got a whole life!"

"It has to be fake," the Doctor said.

Jack went to make some tea while they all sat there, thinking. "But he's got the Tardis. And Susan", he said after a while, pouring them mugs of tea. "Maybe the Master went back in time and has been living here for decades."

"No", the Doctor said.

"Why not?" Jack asked and gave them the mugs. "Worked for me."

"When he was stealing the Tardis, the only thing I could do was fuse the coordinates. I locked them permanently. He can only travel between the year one hundred trillion and the last place the Tardis landed," he clarified. "Which is right here, right now."

"Yeah," Jack raised his eyebrows. "But a little leeway?"

"Well, eighteen months, tops," the Doctor said. "The most he could have been here is eighteen months. So how has he managed all this?" He looked back at the computer and shook his head. "The Master was always sort of hypnotic, but this is on a massive scale!"

"I was going to vote for him," Martha said.

The Doctor looked at her, surprised. "_Really_?"

"Well, it was before I even met you. And I liked him."

"Me too," Jack said.

The Doctor stared at them. "Why do you say that? What was his policy? What did he stand for?"

Martha shrugged. "I don't know. He always sounded good." She started tapping a rhythm on her hand.

_Tap-tap-tap-tap_.

"Like you could trust him. Just nice. He spoke about... I can't really remember, but it was good. Just the sound of his voice."

The Doctor frowned. "What's that?" he pointed at her hand.

"What?"

"_That_! That tapping, that rhythm. What are you doing?"

Martha looked at her hands. "I don't know. It's nothing... It's just, I don't know!"

Suddenly, a fanfare blared out of the computer. A pop-up window saying "Saxon Broadcast All Channels" appeared on the webpage.

The Doctor turned on the television.

"Our lord and master is speaking to his kingdom," he said.

"_Britain, Britain, Britain. What extraordinary times we've had. Just a few years ago, this world was so small. And then they came, out of the unknown, falling from the skies. You've seen it happen. Big Ben destroyed. A spaceship over London. All those ghosts and metal men. The Christmas star that came to kill. Time and time again, and the government told you nothing. Well, not me. Not Harold Saxon. Because my purpose, here today is to tell you this: Citizens of Great Britain, I have been contacted. A message for humanity, from beyond the stars._"

Their eyebrows rose. A new image appeared on the screen.

"_People of the Earth, we come in peace. We bring great gifts. We bring technology and wisdom and protection. And all we ask in return is your friendship."_

"_Ooo, sweet." _The Master spoke again. "_And this species has identified itself. They are called the Toclafane."_

"What!"

"_And tomorrow morning, they will appear. Not in secret, but to all of you. Diplomatic relations with a new species will begin. Tomorrow, we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman and child. Every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer. Oh, I don't know, every medical student_?"

They all turned around to look at Martha, whose eyes widened. The Doctor looked behind the TV and of course, there was a bomb.

"OUT!"

They just managed to get outside when the apartment exploded.

The Doctor looked around. "All right?"

"Fine, yeah, fine," Jack said.

Martha took out her phone and started dialing.

"Martha? What are you doing?" The Doctor asked.

"He knows about me. What about my family?" she asked and called her mum.

"Don't tell them anything!" The Doctor yelled.

"I'll do what I like. Mum? Oh my God, you're there."

"_Of course I'm here, sweetheart. You all right?_"

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Mum, has there been anyone asking about me?"

"_Martha, I think perhaps you should come round._"

Martha frowned. "I can't. Not now."

"_No, but it's your father. We've been talking... and we thought we might give it another go._"

"Don't be so daft! Since when?"

"_Just come around. Come to the house. We can... celebrate._"

"You said you'd never get back with him in a million years!" she said, laughing incrediously.

"_Ask him yourself._" She waited, and then heard her fathers voice. "_Martha, it's me._"

"Dad, what are you doing there?"

"_Like your mother said. Come round. We can explain everything._"

Martha paused. Something was definitely wrong. "Dad? Just say yes or no. Is there someone else there?"

There was a silence. Then: "_Yes! Just run! Listen to me! Just run! I don't know who they are!-"_

After that she just heard yelling.

"Dad? What's going on? Dad?" She looked at the Doctor. "We've got to help them!" She ran to her car.

"That's exactly what they want," the Doctor yelled, "It's a trap!"

"I don't care!"

They just managed to get inside the car as Martha started driving.

She dialed her sister. "Come on, Tish. Pick up."

"_Martha, I can't talk right now. We just made first contact. Did you see-? What are you doing? Get off! Linda, tell them!"_

"What's happening? Tish!" She yelled. She glared at the Doctor. "It's your fault. It's all your fault!"

They finally arrived at her parents house, and saw that both of her parent's were already taken hostage.

"Oh my god," she whispered.

"Martha," the Doctor said. "Reverse."

Martha just stared as the men aimed their guns at them.

"Get out, now!"

She snapped into action and turned the car around just as they started shooting.

"Move it!" Jack shouted. The back window shattered.

"The only place we can go is planet Earth," Martha said and glared at the Doctor. "Great!"

"Careful!"

"Martha, listen to me," Jack said. "Do as I say. We've got to ditch this car. Pull over. _Right now!_" Martha glared but did as he said.

"Martha, come on!" the Doctor said as they started walking away from the car.

But Martha didn't give up, and made yet another phone call. "Leo! Oh, thank God. Leo, you got to listen to me. Where are you?"

"_I'm in Brighton. Yeah, we came down with Boxer. Did you see that Saxon thing on telly?_"

"Leo, just listen to me. Don't go home. I'm telling you. Don't phone Mum or Dad or Tish. You've got to hide!"

"_Shut up._"

"On my life. You've got to trust me," she said. "Go to Boxer's. Stay with him. Don't tell anyone. Just hide."

Suddenly, it wasn't her brother speaking at all.

"_Ooo, a nice little game of hide and seek. I love that"_, the Master said. "_But I'll find you, Martha Jones. Been a long time since we saw each other. Must be, what, one hundred trillion years?_"

"Let them go, Saxon," Martha said between her teeth and the Doctor and Jack turned back to her. "Do you hear me! _Let them go_!" she screamed.

The Doctor took her phone.

"I'm here."

Suddenly the Master went quiet.

"_Doctor,_" he whispered.

"Master."

"_I like it when you use my name._"

"You chose it," the Doctor said, looking around. "Psychiatrist's field day."

"_As you chose yours. The man who makes people better." _He could hear the smirk in his voice. "_How sanctimonious is that?_"

"So, Prime Minister, then?"

"_I know!_" he said, pleased. "_It's good, isn't it?_"

"Who are those creatures? Because there's no such thing as the Toclafane. It's just a made up name, like the Bogeyman!"

"_Do you remember all those fairy tales about the Toclafane when we were kids? Back home._" He said. "_Where is it, Doctor?_"

"Gone."

"_How can Gallifrey be gone!_"

"It burnt."

There was a silence.

"_And the Time Lords?_"

"Dead. And the Daleks, more or less," he said. "What happened to you?"

"_The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I'd be the perfect warrior for the Time War. I was there when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform._" He paused. "_I saw it. I ran. I ran _so_ far. Made myself human so they would never find me, because I was _so_ scared._"

The Doctor swallowed. "I know."

"_All of them_?" the Master said suddenly, incredibly. "_But not you, which must mean..._"

"I was the only one who could end it. And I tried. I did. I tried everything."

"_What did it feel like, though? Two almighty civilisations burning,_" he groaned. "_Oh, tell me, how did that feel?_"

The Doctor frowned. "Stop it!"

"_You must have been like God._"

"I've been alone ever since. But not anymore," he breathed. "Don't you see? All we've got is each other."

The Master sounded bemused. "_Are you asking me out on a date_?"

"You could stop this right now!" the Doctor said. "We could leave this planet. We can fight across the constellations, if that's what you want, but not on Earth."

"_Too late._"

"Why do you say that?"

"_The drumming. Can't you hear it?_" the Master said. "_I thought it would stop, but it never does. Never _ever_ stops. Inside my head, the drumming, Doctor! The constant drumming._"

"I could help you. _Please_, let me help."

"_It's everywhere. Listen, listen, listen,_" he started tapping a rhythm. "_Here come the drums. Here come the drums._"

"What have you done? Tell me how you've done this. What are those creatures? And where have you taken Susan? _Tell me_!"

There was a silence on the other end, and then a new voice speaking.

"_Doctor?_"

The Doctor's eyebrows rose. "Susan?" he said, amazed. "Are you alright?"

"_Of course I am_," she said. "_You know me. Always fine._"

"I'm serious. What has he done to you? Don't believe a word he says!"

"_Umm, sorry, Doctor, but that's a bit too late now. Oh, look, you're on telly!_"

"Stop it. Answer me!"

There was a moment of silence, and the Master was speaking again.

"_No, really. You're on telly. You and your little band, which, by the way, is ticking every __demographic box. So, congratulations on that. Look, there you are._"

The Doctor looked at the shop window and saw a picture of himself, Jack and Martha in the news.

"_You're public enemies number one, two and three. Oh, and you can tell handsome Jack that I've sent his little gang off on a wild goose chase to the Himalayas, so he won't be getting any help from them._"

He glanced at Martha and Jack, who were watching him from a few feet away, and beckoned them to come closer.

"_Now, go on, off you go. Why not start by turning to the... right?_"

The Doctor turned and saw the CCTV camera. He took his sonic screwdriver and fried it. "He can see us!" he yelled.

"_Oh, you public menace," _the Master said_. "Better start running. Go on, _run._"_

The Doctor lowered the phone. "He's got control of everything."

"What do we do?" Martha asked.

"We've got nowhere to go," Jack confirmed.

"Doctor._ What_ do we do?!" Martha repeated.

"_Run, Doctor, run for your life!_"

He looked at Jack and Martha and grimaced.

"We run."


	21. The Sound of Drums

**A/N: **Yay! I'm alive!

So, yeah. I'm so sorry it's taken me such a long time to update. I was honestly not that happy about writing these next few chapters, so I kept avoiding doing so. I didn't have as a clear idea as I thought about which direction this story was heading to.

Anyway, let's get on with the chapter!

Thank you for **kirahvikoira** (stalk her on tumblr!) for beta reading this one. She's a champ for putting up with my overuse of commas.

**Disclaimer: **_Doctor Who_ and _Torchwood_ belong to BBC. I only own the characters you don't recognize.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6: The Sound of Drums<strong>

Next morning Susan attended the reveal of the Toclafane with Lucy and Harold Saxon, still posing as Harold's sister. She was wearing black jeans that were a bit uncomfortable around the middle and a small Tardis blue jacket that barely hid her black, hand-pressed t-shirt that was donned with the text: "He'd be lost without his blogger." She wasn't completely sure who the text referred to.

They exited the elevator and the Master went past the cameras straight to the President of U.S. and asked with that cheeky tone of his, "Anything I can do? I could make tea, or isn't that American enough?" He smiled. "I don't know, I could make grits. What are grits, anyway?"

President Winters raised his left eyebrow at him. "If you could just sit down," he said. His eyes wandered over to Susan. "And who is this? I told you, only authorised personnel allowed."

Susan silently agreed with him. The guy could be a thick headed idiot, but even she didn't fully understand the exactl reason for her to be present. After all, it seemed a bit suspicious for Harold Saxon to keep his stepsister around him all the time.

The Master grinned. "Oh, I assure you, she's fully authorised." Susan had to fight hard to keep her face straight and not to strangle him. "This is my sister. She just couldn't keep away. You know, since we are making official first contact."

Winters frowned at them, but let the matter drop. They strode to the table and sat down, Lucy on the Master's right and Susan on his right.

"What do you think?" the Master said. "It's good, isn't it?"

"It's beautiful," Lucy said in that awed voice of hers.

"Some of my best work. Ministry of Defense," he whispered and grinned. "I helped to design this place. _Every_ detail."

Susan had to grudgingly admit that it was impressive. It was good in a modern sort of 'I'm very new and shiny' kind of way, but still classy enough not to look too like something out of a scifi movie. The Master glanced at her and grinned. "You've never been up here before, have you?"

"You know I haven't," she said and rolled her eyes. A thought struck her. "Should I be sitting here?"

"I assure you, my plans aren't in any way restricted by seating arrangements," he whispered and smirked. Winters bellowed for all the armed personnel to leave the deck, informing the rest of them that they were going live in two minutes. The Master took a white paper bag out of his pocket. "Jelly baby?"

Susan rolled her eyes, but took one anyway. Delicious.

"Broadcasting at seven fifty eight with the arrival timed for eight hundred hours exactly," Winters said. "And, er, good luck to all of us." The Master made an amused face at him.

Winters stepped up to stand upon the stairs, preparing himself for the live audience.

Susan kept glancing towards the doors, wondering if she could see through the perception filter. They hadn't tested it before, but maybe... The Master's hypnosis hadn't worked on her, so maybe this wouldn't either.

"My fellow Americans, patriots, people of the world," Winters started. "I stand before you today as ambassador for humanity, a role I will undertake with the utmost solemnity. Perhaps our Toclafane cousins can offer us much, but what is important is not that we gain material benefits, but that we learn to see ourselves anew."

From the corner of her eye she could see the Doctor, Martha and Jack coming through a door. The Doctor's face didn't look happy. At all. Martha was also glaring at her. Oh. Yeah. Martha's family was being held captive. Susan swallowed and stared straight ahead.

"For as long as man has looked at the stars, he has wondered what mysteries they hold. Now we know we are not alone. And I ask you now, I ask of the human race, to join with me in welcoming our friends. I give you..." he turned around. "The Toclafane."

Four spheres appeared out of thin air, floating around President Winters.

"My name is Arthur Coleman Winters, President Elect of the United States of America, and designated representative of the United Nations." Susan could see the Doctor circling the people around the table, staying close to the wall. She glanced at the Master, who was smirking. "I welcome you to the planet Earth and its associated moon."

"_You're not the Master,_" one of the spheres sang.

"_We like the mister Master._" They kept circling around the president.

"I...can be master, if you so wish." He seemed at loss for words. Susan wanted to slam her head to the table at the next words coming out of his mouth. "I will accept mastery over you, if that is God's will."

One of the spheres giggled. "_Man is stupid._"

"_Master is our friend_," another one continued.

"_Where's my Master, pretty please?_"

The Master grinned. "Oh, all right then," he said, holding up his hands. "It's me." He sprung up from his chair. "Ta da!"

People stared at him in confusion.

"Sorry, sorry, I have this effect," he said, smiling widely. "People just get _obsessed._ Is it the smile? Is it the aftershave? Is it the capacity to laugh at myself?" He shrugged. "I don't know. It's crazy!"

Susan had to fight hard to stop herself from either laughing or melting on the spot. This was even better than seeing his crazy antics on the telly. He was just... _God._

Winters, however, didn't seem impressed. "Saxon, what are you talking about?

The Master swirled around to look at him, and crossed his arms. "I'm taking control, _Uncle Sam_, starting with you." He gestured for the spheres, the cheery facade gone. "Kill him."

The spheres blasted President Winters into little pieces. People screamed, and scrambled to get out of the room. That's when the Saxon employers drew out guns. The Master laughed at the panic and applauded. "Guards!" he bellowed.

"Nobody move!" the guards yelled, holding all the people at gunpoint. "_Nobody_ move!"

The Master jogged up the stairs and leaned his weight on the rails. "Now then, peoples of the Earth," he said, staring straight into the cameras. "Please attend carefully."

Susan was still sitting in her seat. She looked around uncertainly, fearing that Martha or Jack would come at her from behind and punch her in the throat. However, they both seemed too preoccupied to do so. The Doctor pay her any notice at all. He just took off his perception filter and ran towards the Master.

"Stop him," the Master called out. The guards easily got hold of the Doctor. The Master stared at him, pleased smile twisting upon his lips. "We meet at last, Doctor. _Oh, ho_," he laughed, looking like he was going to burst. "I _love_ saying that!"

The Doctor struggled. "Stop it! Stop it now!"

"As if a perception filter's going to work on me," he said, raising an eyebrow. He glanced Martha and Jack, both who were staring at him with burning eyes. "And look, it's the girlie and the freak." He reached into his pocket. "Although, I'm not sure which one's which."

Jack ran towards the Master, clearly intent on punchimg him in the face, and yelled out in pain as the Master zapped him with his laser screwdriver. He fell down and Martha ran to him. Susan felt a twinge of guilt in her stomach at the sight and averted her eyes.

"Laser screwdriver," the Master said, holding it up. "Who'd have sonic?" He nodded at Jack, and gleefully continued. "And the good thing is, he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again!"

"Master, just calm down," the Doctor pleaded him. "Just look at what you're doing. Just stop. If you could see yourself..."

The Master raised an eyebrow at him and then looked at the cameras. "Oh, do excuse me. Little bit of personal business. Back in a minute." He glanced at the guards. "Let him go."

Susan winced with sympathy as they threw the Doctor on the floor.

"It's that sound," the Doctor said, looking up at him. "The sound in your head. What if I could help?"

"Ohh," the Master said and mimed a babbling mouth with his hand. "How to shut him up?" He raised his eyebrows. "I know... _Memory lane_!" he said cheerfully and sat down on the steps. The Doctor stared at him, looking unsure what he meant.

"Professor Lazarus. Remember him and his genetic manipulation device?" The Master asked, and at the Doctor's expression, continued, "What, did you think that little_ Tish_ got that job merely by coincidence? I've been laying traps for you all this time. And if I can concentrate all that Lazarus technology into one little screwdriver?" He held up his invention. Then paused, looking thoughtful, his chin held up in his hand. "But, ooo, if I only had the Doctor's biological code. Oh, wait a minute, _I do_."

The Master stood up and ran to a metallic case, and opened it. "I've got his hand!" he yelled cheerfully, then started fiddling with the screwdriver. "And if Lazarus made himself younger... what if I reverse it?" He smirked and pointed it to the Doctor. "Another... hundred years?"

Susan couldn't bear to look at the Doctor, as he screamed, flailing around, his body aging at a tremendous speed. Instead she stared at Jack, who had just woken up and was giving his vortex manipulator to Martha. If only she could have the chance to explain what was happening...

The Master stopped and the Doctor fell down. Martha crawled up to him. "Doctor?" she asked, taking hold of his arm. "I've got you."

"Ah, she's a would-be doctor," the Master said, his voice pitying. He looked down at her. "But tonight, _Martha Jones_," he started, back to his cheery facade, "we've flown them in, all the way from prison!"

Susan turned as double doors opened, revealing Martha's parents and her sister, their wrists fastened together with cable ties. Martha stood up and stared at them, her eyes watering. "Mum," she breathed out.

"I'm sorry," Francine sobbed. One of the guards was holding a gun against her head.

Susan took use of the distraction and tiptoed towards the Master, going past him and stopping to stand on Lucy's right up on the deck. She leaned against the railing, and feeling her slowly heart break at the sight of the Doctor, who was breathing hard, his whole body trembling.

"The Toclafane," he rasped out, staring hard at the Master. Martha took hold of his elbow and held him steady. "What are they?" The Master glanced at him questioningly, bent down, and gestured at his ear. The Doctor repeated himself. "Who are they?"

"Doctor," the Master said quietly and put his hand on the Doctor's chest. "If I told you the truth, your hearts would break."

The spheres appeared above the three of them. "_Is it time? Is it ready?_"

"_Is the machine singing?_"

The Master glanced at his wrist watch. "Two minutes past," he said and jumped up the stairs, settling next to Lucy and Susan. The cameras were pointed at the three of them, and it the live broadcast was still continuing. Damn, her face was going to be on national television, and that would bring its fair share of trouble. The cameramen zoomed in on the Master's face. "So, Earthlings. Basically, er," he smiled thoughtfully. "End of the world." Every person in the room stared stared at him as he held up his laser screwdriver, took a breath and yelled. "Here come the drums!"

'_Voodoo Child_' by Rogue Traders started playing in the background.

Susan saw the Master slip past them towards the window, so she took her time to look around. Jack was still lying on the floor, and she really wanted to go to him. He noticed her gaze, and glared. Susan grimaced, and mouthed, '_Sorry_', as subtly as she could. His eyes narrowed.

The Master came back on the deck, and gestured for Lucy and Susan to follow him to the big windows. Thousands and thousands of spheres were falling down to Earth. Susan took solace in the fact that it wasn't technically happening at all.

"How many, do you think?" he asked.

"I, I don't know," Lucy hesitated. Susan glanced at her, and felt bad. She looked so nervous.

"Six billion," the Master breathed out, clearly satisfied. He waved down. "Down you go, kids!" He grabbed Lucy by her waist and pulled her up close. "Shall we decimate them?"

He glanced at Susan from the corner of his eye and smirked as her expression tightened.

"That sounds good. A nice word, _decimate_." He smiled, then turned his head, his voice suddenly clear through the whole ship. "_Remove one tenth of the population!_"

**This isn't really happening, this isn't really happening,** Susan chanted.

_What about Martha's family and Jack? They're going to be suffering for a year, _a familiar voice commented. Susan fought to keep her face straight.

**There's nothing I can do. They were already here. I can't bear to change anything that could lead to a different ending for this insanity.**

She turned slightly to watch over her shoulder, as the Master and his wife stared at the destruction, seemingly satisfied with themselves. Doctor was whispering something into Martha's ear.

In the background, she could hear people at different military bases calling for help. "Valiant_, this is Geneva. We're getting slaughtered down here. _Valiant_, report. Help us. For God's sake, help us! They're everywhere!_"

After a few seconds, Martha stood up, and glanced at Jack and the Doctor, and then at her family, who were staring at her with various faces of sadness mixed with disbelief.

"_This is London, _Valiant_. This is London calling. What do we do? They're killing us! The Toclafane are all around. They're killing us!_"

Martha glanced towards the ceiling, maybe for heavenly guidance, maybe for something else. Then she gazed at her family for the last time. Martha pressed the button on the wrist strap and disappeared.

Susan saw the Doctor and Jack exchange glances. The Doctor seemed to feel someone was watching them, because he looked up and straight into Susan's eyes. Jack noticed her too, and they both stared at her with equally betrayed eyes. She bit her teeth together and clenched her fists, nodded at them curtly, and turned around to face the window.

Lucy and the Master dragged the Doctor over to the window by his elbows and showed him the destruction they had accomplished.

"And so it came to pass that the human race fell, and the Earth was no more. And I looked down upon my new dominion as Master of all, and I thought it..._Good_."

Susan stared at the rising fires on planet Earth, and tried to ignore the Doctor's anguished face next to her.

**I don't care what happens to me, as long as Martha succeeds. **


	22. I can't decide whether

**Chapter 8: I can't decide whether you should live or die**

One Year Later

Susan stepped out of her room and was immediately flanked by two guards. She frowned at them disapprovingly, but the guards didn't meet her eye, so she just ignored them as always. She entered the conference room and sat down, waiting for the Master to arrive. Her guards stepped down and went to stand beside the wall instead, making sure that nothing shifty and unplanned went on.

Francine glared at her as soon as she got the change, as she'd done every morning for the last year.

Susan ignored her with a cold, practiced shift of her head and glanced instead towards the tent where she knew the Doctor is residing. She sighed inwardly. However hard she's tried, she had only gotten a few chances alone with the Doctor, and both times the aged time lord had refused to speak a word to her. She wasn't sure if it was because he had a plan, or because he was angry at her. Probably both.

But Susan had been counting. Today was the day, she was sure of it.

'_Citizens rejoice. Your lord and master stands on high, playing track three._'

The Master finally arrived accompanied by the familiar music blaring through the speakers. He waltzed through the doors, danced his way across the floor and kissed Lucy. Susan felt a twinge of jealousy, immediately followed by pity and guilt. They'd never gotten along, but Susan knew that Lucy wasn't exactly happy either. Susan should've been happy she wasn't in her place, trapped like a bird in a golden cage. Her own situation wasn't that different from Lucys, in the end. She just spent more time in her room ignoring everybody, which meant she had less time to admit to herself what a jerk the Master was. At least Susan got to be alone and at peace during the nights, a privilege the Master's wife ironically didn't have.

'_I can't decide, __w__hether you should live or die__  
><em>_Oh, you'll probably go to heaven ,__ p__lease don't hang your head and cry__'_

The Master sat on his chair and swung around, taking a sip of his coffee and then throwing the rest on the table. He made his angry face at Francine, who looked equally terrified and angry. Then he jumped up onto the deck and started ringing the bell.

_'No wonder why, my heart feels dead inside. It's cold and hard and petrified,_

_Lock the doors and close the blinds, we're going for a ride'_

Susan loved this song. Even though now it would forever remind her of the pang of guilt she felt every time she saw the Doctor climbing out of his tent.

_'Oh, I could throw you in the lake or feed you poisoned birthday cake  
>I wont deny I'm gonna miss you when you're gone! Oh, I could bury you alive,<br>But you might crawl out with a knife, and kill me when I'm sleeping, that's why...'_

The Doctor had seemed to stop fighting back a while ago, and while the Master kept up his cheery facade at the face of destruction, he looked frustrated when he thought no one was looking. The time lord in question manhandled the Doctor and threw him on his wheelchair, running around with him and finally reaching the window. Susan walked up to them in time to hear the end of their conversation.

"It's good isn't it?" the Master said, crouching down next to the Doctor. "Isn't it good? Anything?" He waved his hand in front of the Doctor's absent face and glanced at Susan, who shrugged.

"No. Anything?" He was silent for a moment, glancing out of the window at the Toclafane flying around. "Oh, but they broke your hearts didn't they, those Toclafane? Ever since you worked out what they really are."

He looked again up at Susan. "They say Martha Jones has come back home. Now...Why would she do that?"

Susan grimaced and shrugged again.

"Leave Martha alone," the Doctor rasped out and the Master looked back at him.

"You said something to her, didn't you. On the day I took control," he narrowed his eyes."What did you tell her?"

"I only have one thing to say to you... You know what it is."

The Master grinned. "Oh, no you don't!" He gave the Doctor a push towards the guards and turned back to Susan. "What is she planning?"

Susan bit her lip. "You know I can't exactly tell you," she said slowly, but then hastily continued at the expression on his face, "But I have a plan.. I could draw Martha Jones out of hiding," she said and swallowed. "She hates me, she'll definitely take the bait, just to punch me to death."

The Master looked intrigued. "All right," he said after a moment of thinking. "But how are you going to get past the remaining population of planet Earth, who all recognise your face as my 'sister' and partner-in-crime?" he asked, smirking.

Susan frowned. She hadn't really thought about that. "Well...", she said. "Do you still have that perception filter the Doctor had on him?"

The Master smiled, vaguely shark-like. "You have 24 hours."

* * *

><p>The helicopter dropped her near enough the Nuclear Plant Seven for her to be able to walk there, but not near enough for anyone to notice her and the chopper. She rolled around the ground for a bit to look a bit more worn down, and smeared some dirt on her face and hair. The nearer she got to the plant, the tighter she clutched the TARDIS key around her neck. This had to go exactly according to plan, or she was dead.<p>

An hour later she spotted Tom Milligan and grabbed his attention by appearing out of thin air, at least by his perspective. "Hi!" she chirped and held up her hands cheerily. "Sorry for scaring you!"

Tom eyed her suspiciously. "Who are you and what the hell are you doing here?"

Susan shrugged. "My name isn't important, I'm here to find Martha Jones."

Tom had almost lowered his gun, but immediately held it up again.

"Don't worry!" She laughed. "I'm just an old friend. I head she's back so I came here as soon as I heard the news."

Finally Tom lowered his weapon, but didn't put it away. "What's your name?"

Susan didn't hesitate. "Rose," she said. "Rose Tyler."

Tom lead her to the building and left her alone at the threshold. He went off to inform Martha of her arrival. Susan knew for a fact that he mentioned her name, because she could hear Martha's surprised yell of "WHAT?!"

She could hear Martha running towards her, and she steeled herself for an attack. And she was right to do so, because as soon as Martha came to a stop and realised who she was looking at, her face twisted in anger. And she punched Susan. Hard.

"I so deserved that," she said, staggering backwards and rubbing her jaw. "But goddamnit it hurts."

"What are you doing here?" Martha asked, her arms crossed. She was still glaring.

"Okay, I get you probably hate me so much right now," Susan said and spread out her hands. "But hear me out."

"Why?"

"Oh, c'mon," Susan snarked. "All this time, going all over the world, hating the two of us. Like you never wondered why I did it!"

Martha narrowed her eyes. "Speak."

* * *

><p>"So it was a paradox?" Martha said, her face finally more relaxed from it's earlier angry face. "But if you sent the letter and the package, wasn't it started by you in the first place?"<p>

Susan shrugged. "I guess," she said. "But it was future me, who had already gotten the same thing in the mail earlier. So it never really had a beginning, or an end."

Martha looked frustrated. "You could've helped my family."

"Oh, trust me," Susan snorted. "They wouldn't have accepted my help. Anyway, they're all okay. I've been keeping an eye on them, which is one of the reasons I did what I did. To be able to monitor what's happening," she continued. "So far nothing seems to have changed for the worse, I think we can still do this."

Martha nodded. "So it's going to work?"

"Yup."

She looked relieved. "Okay. Let's go back inside."

* * *

><p>Professor Alison Docherty didn't seem to care who Susan was or what she was doing there, although Susan suspected she already knew.<p>

"Obviously the Archangel Network would seem to be the Master's biggest weakness. Fifteen satellites around the Earth, still transmitting," the professor said and handed a set of blueprints to Tom and Martha. Susan peered over Martha's shoulder to take a look. "It's transmitting a signal that keeps people scared. That's why there's so little resistance."

Tom didn't seem scared at all. "We could just take them out."

"We could," professor Docherty said raising an eyebrow. "Fifteen ground-to-air missiles. You got any on you?" She sighed. "Besides, any military action and the Toclafane descend."

"They're not called Toclafane," Martha said. "That's a name the Master made up."

Docherty stared at her. "What are they, then?"

"That's why I came to find you," Martha shrugged. "Know your enemy." She pulled out a CD from her bag. "No one's been able to look at a sphere close up. They can't even be damaged. Except once. The lightning strike in South Africa brought one of them down. Just by chance," she said. The expressions around her lit up. Martha waved the CD. "I've got the readings on this."

Docherty immediately put the CD into her computer. She had to bang it a few times before it started working.

"Oh, whoever thought we'd miss Bill Gates," she muttered.

Susan grinned at her comment.

"So that is why you travelled the world?" Tom asked Martha. "To find a disc?"

Martha glanced at her. "No," she said, her expression cheery. "Just got lucky."

"I heard stories that you walked the Earth to find a way to build a weapon."

Susan stared at Martha, whose face darkened a bit. She chose to keep quiet however.

"There!" the professor cried out. Martha stepped closer to the computer to peer at the screen. "A current of 58.5 kilo amperes transferred charge of 510 megajoules precisely."

"Can you recreate that?" Tom asked.

"I think so," the professor said and smiled. "Easily, yes."

Martha grinned and looked at Tom. "Right then, Dr. Milligan, we're going to get ourselves a sphere."

* * *

><p>It all ran very smoothly. Tom went outside, fired a couple of shots into the air, and ran to the sent point with the sphere after him. It flew right into the trap. Susan waited inside, just in case one of the spheres recognised her.<p>

"We got it!" Tom said as they came back inside. "We're going to open it."

Professor Docherty walked in carrying the sphere, with Martha at her side. They put it on a table and started opening it up. Susan sat down next to the shelves full of electronic junk and sighed. She really didn't want to be here for this. Why couldn't she have arrived later?

"Some sort of magnetic clamp. Hold on, I'll just trip the-" she said just as the clamp opened. She threw aside her equipment and started opening the sphere. The sides fell apart like petals. "Oh my god!"

Martha and Tom rushed to peer inside. Susan could see from their expressions that this wasn't what they'd been expecting. The thing inside looked like a disfigured human head, sleeping. Suddenly it opened its eyes and the controls and lights turned back on. They all took a step backwards.

"It's alive!" Docherty breathed out.

"Martha," the sphere said. "Martha Jones."

Martha glanced at Docherty and Tom in surprise. "It knows you," Tom said, confused.

"Sweet, kind, Martha Jones," the sphere repeated. "You helped us to fly."

"What do you mean?" Martha asked.

"You led us to salvation."

"Who are you?" Martha repeated, her face twisting in confusion. Susan closed her eyes and bit her lip.

"The skies are made of diamonds."

"No," Martha gasped out in horror and took a step back. "You can't be him!"

"We share each others memories. You sent him to Utopia."

"Oh my god," Martha gasped.

Tom and Docherty were equally confused. "What's it talking about? What's it mean?" Tom asked.

"What are they?"

"Martha," Tom said. "Martha, tell us. What are they?"

Martha looked up at him, her eyes glinting. "They're us," she said. "They're humans. The human race from the future."

Susan didn't say a word. She knew that Martha knew she'd known all along. A few minutes later, after they'd all contemplated Martha's word, she spoke again.

"I sort of worked it out, with the paradox machine," Martha said. They all looked at her. "Because the Doctor said, on the day before the Master came to power, he said the Master could only travel between the year 100 trillion and the last place the Tardis landed, which was Earth now." Susan nodded absently. "The Master had the TARDIS, this time machine, but the only other place he could go was the end of the universe. So he found Utopia. The Utopia Project was the last hope. Trying to find a way to escape the end of everything."

The sphere spoke up. "There was no solution, no diamonds. Just the dark and the cold." It giggled. "But then the Master came with his wonderful time machine to bring us back home."

"But that's a paradox," Docherty said, frowning. "If you're the future of the human race, and you've come back to murder your ancestors, you should cancel yourselves out. You shouldn't exist."

"That's the paradox machine," Susan said and stood up. They all looked at her, startled. "The Master cannibalized the Tardis, the Doctor's time machine. He made her wrong, so incredibly_ wrong_, that paradoxes could happen and the past and future could collide."

"How do you know so much about this, Rose?" Tom asked, confused. "I thought you hadn't seen Martha in a while."

"I used to travel with the Doctor too," Susan said, not even a bit bothered by the wrong name Tom was using. Martha certainly was, figuring from her glare. Susan shrugged. "I know some stuff, yeah."

"What about us?" Tom spoke up after a while, looking down at the sphere in disgust. "We're the same species, why do you kill so many of us?"

"Because it's fun!" It laughed.

There was a moment of silence. Then Tom raised his gun and killed it. They left it there on the table out of a silent mutual agreement and went back to the professors living area to wind off.

Susan sat down on a bed next to Martha and blew on her cup of tea.

"I think it's time time we had the truth, Miss Jones," professor Docherty said after a while. "Legend says you traveled the world to find a way of killing the Master. Tell us... Is it true?"

"Just before I escaped the Doctor told me something..." She got up from the bed and opened her backbag. "The Doctor and the Master, they've been coming to Earth for years. And they've been watched." She took a case from her bag. "There's UNIT, and Torchwood, all studying Time Lords in secret." Susan had to fight hard not to snort. "And they made this. The ultimate defence."

The case opened to reveal a special gun with four slots on the top.

"All you need to do is get close," Tom said and held up his gun. "I can shoot the Master dead with this."

Susan flinched. He was a bit too right on that.

"Actually, you can put that down now, thank you very much," professor Docherty said.

"Point is," Martha continued. "It's not so easy to kill a Time Lord. They can regenerated; literally bring themselves back to life."

"Ah, the Master's immortal," Docherty sighed. "Wonderful."

"Except for this," Martha said and picked up the gun. "Four chemicals, slotted into the gun, inject him... Kills a Time Lord, permanently."

"Four chemicals?" Tom asked, frowning. He grabbed the vials. "You've only got three."

"Still need the last one," Martha said and Tom's shoulders slumped down in defeat. "Cause the components of this gun were kept safe, scattered across the world. And I found them. San Diego, Beijing, Budapest,..." she paused. "And London."

"And, where is it?" Tom asked.

"There's an old UNIT base in north London," Martha said. "I've found the access codes. Tom, you need to get me there."

"Us," Susan said. "I'm coming with you."

Martha hesitated for a moment, but nodded. "It's going to be dangerous."

Susan grimaced. "Oh, believe me, I know."

* * *

><p>They got halfway to London before they were forced to stop and stay the night in some industrial town called Bexley. They ran silently through the guarded streets towards one of the houses. Tom knocked in a weird combination and the door opened up half way.<p>

"Let me in, it's Milligan," he said. The door opened all the way and they rushed in. It was absolutely crowded with people, there was barely room to move.

"Did you bring food?" the woman asked.

Tom looked sad. "Couldn't get any. And I'm starving."

The woman shook her head. "All we've got is water."

Susan felt a terrible pang of guilt at the faces that surrounded her. They all looked starved, like they hadn't eaten in days. Susan felt bad for even thinking about food, despite being hungry. The last time she'd eaten was breakfast on the Valiant that same morning, and she was sure it had been more than these people had eaten for days.

Tom obviously saw something on Martha and Susan's faces, because he spoke quietly. "It's cheaper than building barracks. Pack them in, 100 in each house, ferry them off to the shipyards every morning."

A young boy noticed them. "Are you Martha Jones?"

Martha smiled. "Yeah, that's me."

"Can you do it?" he asked. "Can you kill him? They said you can kill the Master. Can you? Tell us you can do it. Please tell us you can do it."

Martha's expression was terrible to look at. Susan stepped towards the wall in effort to make herself less visible in the crowd.

A woman spoke up. "Who is the Master?" The crowd seemed to take that as a permission to start asking questions and muttering, because the noise quickly started up.

"C'mon, just leave her alone," Tom said. "She's exhausted."

"No, it's all right," Martha said. "They want me to talk. And I will." They all sat down on the staircase and around it. Susan slumped against a wall and tried not to think about what was going to happen.

"I travelled across the world. From the ruins of New York, to the fusion mills of China, right across the radiation pits of Europe. And everywhere I went, I saw people just like you, living as slaves," Martha told them, and the crowd was captivated. Susan looked down at the floor. "But if Martha Jones became a legend, then that's wrong because my name isn't important. There's someone else. The man who sent me out there. The man who told me to walk the Earth. His name is the Doctor. He has saved your lives so many times, and you never even knew he was there. He never stops. He never stays. He never asks to be thanked. But I've seen him. I know him. I love him. And I know what he can do."

The woman who greeted them at the door came inside and pushed her way through the crowd. "It's him!" she yelled, and Susan scrambled to get up. "It's him! Oh my god, it's him! It's the Master! He's here!"

Martha stood on the stair case and took a step back in alarm. The crowd around them started muttering again.

"But he never comes to Earth!" the boy from earlier spoke up. "He never walks upon the ground!"

"Hide her!"

Tom threw a blanket towards them. "Use this!"

As the others scrambled to get away from the door, Susan took a few steps closer, trying not to look too suspicious. She had put the Tardis key back around her neck just moments before.

Tom stepped to the door to peer through the letter box, but Susan put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head. Tom frowned but stepped back.

"He walks upon us... Our lord and Master!"

At that moment his voice rang through the streets, and they all fidgeted around Martha. "Marthaaa," he yelled out. "Martha Joooneeees! I can see you!" Susan could hear the grin in his voice. "Out you come, little girl. Come and meet your Master."

There was silence.

"Oh, this is ridiculous," Susan said, grasped Tom Milligan's gun from his hands, hit him on the head and pocketed the weapon. He slumped down on the floor and the crowd looked at her, their eyes wide. She opened the door and peeked outside. "She's here!"

The Master stopped his speech and blinked. "Oh."

"Martha, c'mon, " Susan said and gripped her arm to bring her out. Martha was just staring at her, her mouth open. "This is all going to go faster if you two would just stop all the theatrical nonsense." She sighed. "Although I do admit it was kinda of funny. 'I can see you', seriously? Should we call you Sauron now?"

The Master blinked again, then grinned. "Where is the weapon?"

Martha ripped herself apart from Susan and frowned at the two of them. She threw the weapon bag to him, seemingly reluctant.

"Good companion," the Master said, smirking. Susan wasn't sure if it was meant for her or Martha, but she rolled her eyes anyway. "Almost dawn, Martha. Planet Earth marches to war."


	23. Not again!

**A/N:**

First of all, I apologize to those who thought this was going to be a real chapter. I hate author's note chapters as much as the next person, but I just couldn't _not_ post this here.

I was reading a rather intelligent guide to writing fanfiction called "_Avoiding Mistakes in Fanfiction Writing: A Beginner's Guide_" by** Valis2**, and got to the bit about Mary Sues and self insertation. I didn't even finish reading that chapter when I realised how horribly blind I'd been about my OC in this fic. I knew she was bit of a Mary Sue, but I never realised how much so.

I always knew Susan was a self insert, heck, she's even from Finland like me. But I tried to create a character with flaws and a real personality, and despite my eagerness, I did a really poor job. Maybe to some people Susan doesn't seem that bad of a Mary Sue, but believe me, when the story gets to the end of season 4, she definitely is one.

I see more clearly now, and I cannot in good conscience continue this fic as it is, so it's getting discontinued. Again.

Those who find this announcement sad: I will try to rewrite this fic as soon as I can, possibly over the summer. I haven't received any word from any summer jobs I applied for, so if I don't get a job I'll probably work on my writing.

When (and if) I start publishing the re-write, I shall post the link here.

Thank you to all those who stuck with me so far! I love you all.

~ Jiwa


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